why is the sky blue?

Answer 1

It was Einstein who answered this question. It has to do with the way sunlight is scattered by the molecules in the atmosphere. Blue light scatters more than red (Tyndall effect also known as Rayleigh scattering), so more blue light reaches our eye.

There is an excellent description at the website listed below (look at the cartoon and it will be pretty clear).

It is not a reflection from the ocean. And it isn't just water molecules that cause the effect.

Aloha

Answer 2

On a clear sunny day, the sky above us looks bright blue. In the evening, the sunset puts on a brilliant show of reds, pinks and oranges. Why is the sky blue? What makes the sunset red?

To answer these questions, we must learn about light, and the Earth's atmosphere

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.

i got this from this website by a scientist i got the same question for me in science and this i got 100 marks

http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/sky_blue.html

Have a try in this website

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.

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 4

because the gasses that make up the atmosphere are blue in color.... close up it looks clear, but it's actually blue.

unlike as stated previously - the sky is not blue because it reflects the blue oceans... the oceans are blue because they reflect the blue sky. notice that water in a glass is clear....

Answer 5

the color blue in light rays cannot pass through the ozone layer causing the sky to look blue.

Answer 6

It due to our atmosphere. The sunlight passes throught it, and blue light comes out.

Answer 7

78% of the air up thurr is nitrogen and that is howw the sunlight reflects off the nitrogen and makes the color blue

Answer 8

I had to do a report on this too and I found this website VERY helpful!

http://world.std.com/~mmcirvin/bluesky.html

http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/sky_blue.html

Hope I helped

Answer 9

even thought i looks clear between you and your computer mon. it is indeed still blue, but because air is so lightly colored, just like glass you need a lot of it to look through before you can see it true colors.

Answer 10

its really clear its only blue because the ocean reflects