why is the sky blue?

Question

im mean why not green?

WOW THIS IS A LOT OF ANSWERS AND STILL MORE R COMIN IN!!!!!

WOW
i mean wow

Answer 1

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/General/BlueSky/blue_sky.html


it will tell you

Answer 2

The actual answer has to do with the wavelength of light, and the gases in our atmosphere. These determine which wavelengths are absorbed by the atmosphere, and that results in the color that you see.

Everything around you has a color, even if it is only black and white or gray. The color is determined by what wavelengths are absorbed by the object. A green plant absorbs all the visible colors, except for green. The green is reflected back at you so you see a green leaf. Our atmosphere absorbs all the colors that we can see, but it absorbs blue the least. So the blue is reflected back at you and you see a blue sky.

Light, indeed all radiation, can be plotted on a line according to its wavelength. The light wavelengths that we can see can be remembered by the letters ROYBGIV (it makes it easier to remember if you think of it as the multicolored clown named Roy B. Giv). These letters stand for Red, Orange, Yellow, Blue, Green, Indigo, and Violet. You notice that the top three colors are shades of blue, while the lower three have more red in them.

A Black Light broadcasts light in the ultraviolet spectrum (ultra means above—therefore above violet), that’s why it looks so blue, most of the light is broadcast in a wavelength that is higher than the wavelength we can see though. A black light is dark to us though because we cannot see all the light it is generating. Certain objects fluoresce under a black light and seem to glow. This is because these objects absorb all the light from the black light. The objects that glow are reflecting that ultraviolet light back at you, we can see part of it so these objects look brighter.

Heat Lamps are bright red and very warm. They are used to keep food warm, because they are broadcasting light in the infrared spectrum (infra means lower). So most of the light is broadcasted in a wavelength BELOW what we can normally see. Lower light wavelengths are more often absorbed by an object, which makes them heat up.

Some insects, like bees, see different wavelengths than we do. They see a slightly higher spectrum than we do. So a bee could see all the light from an ultraviolet light. When you look at a yellow flower you see mostly yellow. It is bright and pretty to us, but not very special. If you were to step down the wavelengths of light, so you can see what a bee sees then the plain yellow flower comes to life. Now there are rings of alternating dark and bright colors; in effect a target pattern that leads the bee to the center of the flower.

So if your eyes were more like a bee’s eye then you would not see the sky with the same blue that you normally see. There are other factors that can change the color of the sky. Our sun is a yellow sun. Smaller suns are redder, and larger suns are bluer. So if we lived on another planet that orbited a red sun then the sky would not be as blue; it would be a bluish red. If the atmosphere had a different make up of gases, say more chlorine then it would look green. Of course chlorine is a deadly poison to us, one that can burn our lungs.

Answer 3

Here is something interesting to think about: When you look at the sky at night, it is black, with the stars and the moon forming points of light on that black background. So why is it that, during the day, the sky does not remain black with the sun acting as another point of light? Why does the daytime sky turn a bright blue and the stars disappear?

The first thing to recognize is that the sun is an extremely bright source of light -- much brighter than the moon. The second thing to recognize is that the atoms of nitrogen and oxygen in the atmosphere have an effect on the sunlight that passes through them.

There is a physical phenomenon called Rayleigh scattering that causes light to scatter when it passes through particles that have a diameter one-tenth that of the wavelength (color) of the light. Sunlight is made up of all different colors of light, but because of the elements in the atmosphere the color blue is scattered much more efficiently than the other colors.

So when you look at the sky on a clear day, you can see the sun as a bright disk. The blueness you see everywhere else is all of the atoms in the atmosphere scattering blue light toward you. (Because red light, yellow light, green light and the other colors aren't scattered nearly as well, you see the sky as blue.)

Answer 4

~~The blue color of the sky is due to Rayleigh scattering. As light moves through the atmosphere, most of the longer wavelengths pass straight through. Little of the red, orange and yellow light is affected by the air.

However, much of the shorter wavelength light is absorbed by the gas molecules. The absorbed blue light is then radiated in different directions. It gets scattered all around the sky. Whichever direction you look, some of this scattered blue light reaches you. Since you see the blue light from everywhere overhead, the sky looks blue. Not green because the yellow is really not affected by the air.....and we all know -Yellow and blue make green! LOL!

Answer 5

The blue color of the sky is due to Rayleigh scattering. As light moves through the atmosphere, most of the longer wavelengths pass straight through. Little of the red, orange and yellow light is affected by the air.

However, much of the shorter wavelength light is absorbed by the gas molecules. The absorbed blue light is then radiated in different directions. It gets scattered all around the sky. Whichever direction you look, some of this scattered blue light reaches you. Since you see the blue light from everywhere overhead, the sky looks blue.

As you look closer to the horizon, the sky appears much paler in color. To reach you, the scattered blue light must pass through more air. Some of it gets scattered away again in other directions. Less blue light reaches your eyes. The color of the sky near the horizon appears paler or white.

Answer 6

OMG LOL all these idionts.. WATER IS CLEAR NOT BLUE! the water looks blue because it is reflecting the sky!

the sky on the other hand is blue basically because of the color spectrum, light reflects off of particles in the atmosphere, the light waves that we see travel quite a distance to earth so as you get closer in to the earth you start losing your reds oranges yellows and greens and we are left with blue.

to put it in english terms lol, light waves reflecting blue travel further than light waves reflecting green. it works a lot like radio frequencies.

Answer 7

The sky is Blue because there are different layers of sky to a certain alititude. The stratosphere is dark blue. The Sun's Rays transfer through the the layers of the sky, thus making a blue colour due to the different layers of the sky.

Answer 8

A clear cloudless day-time sky is blue because molecules in the air scatter blue light from the sun more than they scatter red light. When we look towards the sun at sunset, we see red and orange colours because the blue light has been scattered out and away from the line of sight.
The white light from the sun is a mixture of all colours of the rainbow. This was demonstrated by Isaac Newton, who used a prism to separate the different colours and so form a spectrum. The colours of light are distinguished by their different wavelengths. The visible part of the spectrum ranges from red light with a wavelength of about 720 nm, to violet with a wavelength of about 380 nm, with orange, yellow, green, blue and indigo between. The three different types of colour receptors in the retina of the human eye respond most strongly to red, green and blue wavelengths, giving us our colour vision.

Answer 9

The sky is blue because the Unc Tarheels are the number one team in college basketball. And they produced a player ( the greatest player in basketball ) called Michael Jordan. North Carolina is the best state to live in as well. So all in all God foreseen all this and decided to honor the state, the school, and all college basketball fans everywhere by making the sky color CAROLINA BLUE.

Answer 10

Same way light comes out of a prism - Light from the sun hits the atmosphere, and blue, the cooler side of the scale, refracts down a little more than the rest of the colors.

Answer 11

hey im been in the books so i know what im talking about look see the sky is blue because the water particles in the clouds and the ocean refracting(not reflection) off the suns rays like a flash light bounsing off a bent mirror think about it if the rays was not bousning off the water and the clear particles in the clouds the water would be looking like clear drinking water , besides blue water . the earth would be the color green and .......... clear go figure!