2006-09-29 09:54:04 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Education & Reference ➔ Higher Education (University +)
Things have color because, to put things simply, some colors are absorbed and some are reflected by a material. Thus a red shirt looks red because it absorbs all the colors but red, meaning that the only light which bounces off the shirt is red light. So things have color (and thus can be seen) because light hits the object in question.
Now air is much thinner than a shirt. You can move your hand through the air easily, but you couldn't move your hand through the shirt so easily. Well, light also passes through the air easily. If you imagine the particles of air as widely separated balls flying all over the place, and then imagine a ray of light trying to go through it, then the ray of light will get very far before it hits a particle, because the particles are relatively far apart (that is, they're far apart compared to the size of the particles of air and the size of a ray of light). So if light doesn't have to travel far through the air (e.g. only a mile or two, for instance), then a ray of light will most likely not hit a particle of air.
Of course, after ten or a hundred miles, the odds that a ray of light will hit the air become larger. When light from the Sun tries to go through *all* of the air in the sky (e.g. come all the way from space to the ground), it travels through perhaps a hundred miles of air or more, meaning that a good amount of the light will hit an air particle. An air particle hit by such a ray of light will absorb and then re-emit only the blue light, except it will do so in a random direction. This is why the sky looks blue. The blue color of the sky is *seeing* the air.
I hope that explains things.
2006-09-30 08:46:33 · answer #1 · answered by DAG 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Air is invisible because it is a gas i mean seriously im only in jr high and i know that and no it cant be seen by any means or at least thats wut all my teachers say
2006-09-29 17:02:47 · answer #2 · answered by Dom tha Bomb 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You see that blue in the sky?
You may need to get a 100 miles out of the city. :)
http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/sky_blue.html
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Andre' B.
2006-09-29 17:17:46 · answer #3 · answered by Andre' B 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
hey if you drive to baltimore you can definately see the air...
oh, and taste it.
plus it leaves a scummy residue on your skin.
2006-09-29 17:01:52 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
compress it into liquid form then you can see it
2006-09-29 17:03:03 · answer #5 · answered by norsmen 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋