Q.What is Tyndall effect ?
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Start your 14-day free trial to unlock the full solution →The Tyndall effect is light scattering by colloidal-sized particles, which makes an otherwise invisible light beam visible as it crosses a colloidal solution — it is used to distinguish a colloid from a true solution.
Explanation: When a strong beam of light (e.g. from a torch or laser) is passed through a colloidal sol and viewed at right angles to the incident beam, the path of light becomes visible as a bright, illuminated cone/track within the dispersion. This happens because colloidal particles (diameter roughly 1–1000 nm) are comparable in size to the wavelength of visible light, so they scatter (rather than simply transmit) the light in all directions — this phenomenon is called the Tyndall effect, and the illuminated path is called the Tyndall cone.
Why a true solution does not show it: In a true solution, solute particles are far smaller (ionic/molecular size, <1 nm) than the wavelength of light, so negligible scattering occurs and the light path is not visible.
Significance: (i) It is a simple test to distinguish a colloidal solution from a true solution. …
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