Wondering about transparency.

Did you ever wonder why some things are transparent and some are not?  Why can you see through glass, water, etc (my wife can see through me!!) and you can’t see through a lot of other things.  Well, I guess it is how fast you or the object is vibrating.  (You know, the faster I vibrate the quicker my wife sees through me and wants to know what I have planned)  OK, did I answer those questions to your satisfaction?  No?  OK, I will dig a little deeper into the subject.

There are three things that can happen when light strikes an object.  One is it can disappear.  If a photon of light is vibrating at the same frequency as the electrons in the stuff it hits, those electrons absorb the photon, changing it from light to heat.  OK, so that must be why I feel warmer in the day time than at night.  Well, that makes sense, so what is the second thing that can happen?  Well, light can be scattered.  The surface electrons of the thing that the light hits can grab the photon’s energy and then eject a photon of the same frequency, which is how you see pretty much of all the things that you see that don’t emit light on their own.  So far, this makes sense, so what is the third thing that can happen?  Well, if the photon doesn’t have the right vibration to be absorbed and if the atoms in stuff aren’t arranged in patterns that don’t allow reflection, then the photons pass right through the object and that is called transparency.  (I must thank DISCOVER magazine for all these great facts.)  Now, you all let the light shine in and don't be to transparent but do reflect a lot of warmth so that can feel your joy.