why is the sky blue?

Answer 1

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.

Scattering and absorption are major causes of the attenuation of radiation by the atmosphere. Scattering varies as a function of the ratio of the particle diameter to the wavelength of the radiation. When this ratio is less than about one-tenth, Rayleigh scattering occurs in which the scattering coefficient varies inversely as the fourth power of the wavelength. At larger values of the ratio of particle diameter to wavelength, the scattering varies in a complex fashion described, for spherical particles, by the Mie theory; at a ratio of the order of 10, the laws of geometric optics begin to apply.

Individual gas molecules are too small to scatter light effectively. However, in a gas, the molecules move more or less independently of each-other, unlike in liquids and solids where the density is determined the molecule's sizes. So the densities of gases, such as pure air, are subject to statistical fluctuations. Significant fluctuations are much more common on a small scale. It is mainly these density fluctuations on a small (tens of nanometers) scale that cause the sky to be blue.

Answer 2

According to the Bible, the sea and the sky were made from a firmament. God separated the water from the sky. So, naturally, the firmament was actually a giant gaseous cloud passing through our galaxy. The cloud was sucked into the gravitational pull of the Earth, and some of it became water, and some of it became sky. To answer your question, the sky is blue because the cloud would have been blue to us.

Whenever the light of wavelengths refract they pass through atoms and become visible to the electromagnetic spectrum our eyes are designed to see. To an animal that sees in black and white, the sky is a shade of gray. A rainbow refracts to make a perfect circle, though you only see part of the circle from the ground. When wavelengths are traveling through space, they are not passing through atoms. So, they do not refract in space, and so we do not see them. Our eyes are designed to see only certain electomagnetic wavelengths, only when they are passing through atoms, which is when they refract. It is because light reflects that you see it, and how it reflects determines what colors you will see. If it reflects through oxygen atoms, the electromagnetic wavelengths will appear blue. If it reflects through H2O, the wavelengths will appear a deeper shade of blue. How the electromagnetic wavelengths change direction when they reflect determines what colors you will see.

Answer 3

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.

Answer 4

Okay without consulting a text and off the top of my brain, the sky is blue because:

When light waves hit the gases in the air they leave with a certain frequency. (When they hit a tree leaf they leave with another frequency and so you see green - your cones through electro chemical reactions relay this frequency to your brain and your brain interprets the leaf as green) Then when these light waves at their respective frequency hit the cones of your eyes and sends the message through a series of nerves , your brain interprets the sky as blue - blue is what you learned the color to be. However I have heard that certain species see the sky as a totally different color due to the way the cones of their eyes are structured.

Answer 5

The real question is why is what we perceived as blue perceived as blue why cant white be clue and blue be white..... Can we get some intelligent questions here PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 6

Reflection of the water

Answer 7

This question at least i hv answered 3times! Bcos so tat ppl cant stop asking why! Hahaha

Answer 8

Because it absorbs all light except blue light

Answer 9

Because it wants to suit water.

Answer 10

its the first color in light refraction. its the easiest color for light to exist in, therefore, the most abundent.