why is the sky blue?

Answer 1

Because the components that make up the atmosphere (dust & gas) reflect blue light better than any other colour.

Answer 2

Blame the Earth's atmosphere for that!
Light is a "mixture" of different rays ( as visible light ) having different wavelengths. As light from the Sun passes through the atmosphere most long wavelengths pass through. Our air affects only little red and yellow.

Shorter wavelengths though such as blue are easily absorbed and scattered by gas molecules in different directions. So where ever you look surely blue rays will reach your eyes causing the sky to "appear" blue.

If you look at the horizon, the sky "appears" to look more white than blue. This is because the blue scattered light needs to pass through more air to reach you meaning more absortion.

Now, with this piece of data you can explain why the Sun "appears" yellow too =) It is because the blue rays have being absorbed leaving the loger wavelengths in play ( red and yellow)

In space there is no atmosphere to scatter light in this way. So the sun appears white as it does on the moon, and the sky black, as it does on the moon

Answer 3

The sky is blue partly because air scatters short-wavelength light in preference to longer wavelengths. Where the sunlight is nearly tangent to the Earth's surface, the light's path through the atmosphere is so long that much of the blue and even yellow light is scattered out, leaving the sun rays and the clouds it illuminates red, at sunrise and sunset.

Answer 4

the sky blue because all the light from the sun is a huge range of colours and radiation (dont panic, it wont hurt you)

the colours at the shorter wavelengths (ie blue) are scattered by the atmosphere making it blue.

letting the yellow/red light through to the ground....

Answer 5

since most of this planet is covered by water and the light in the sky is reflected due to dust and other factors you can only see a smaller spectrum of the light which is reflected to they sky which is blue in colour.thus causing sky to look blue.

Answer 6

LOL ..... actually it just LOOKS blue .... the blue we all see when we look off is the result of the sun mixing with the darkness of outer space thats why when the earth turns and we are in our night time and the sun is no longer shining on our side of the earth the sky turns black ...... earth turns to face the sun again and the reflection just makes it look blue ..... interesting huh lol

Answer 7

Actually it is not blue. According to my 14 year old daughter, the sky appears to be blue because it is reflecting the ocean waters? She explains it better than I just did, but that is the gist of it.....

Answer 8

The other colors are filtered out when the light comes through the atmosphere. This leaves more blue light coming through.

Answer 9

Preferential scattering of blue light by particles in the atmosphere

Answer 10

Prism effect-the sky is just at that frequency--kinda like a full time rainbow except when the light is changing sunrise--sunsets