The sky is blue partly because air scatters short-wavelength light in preference to longer wavelengths. Combined, these effects scatter (bend away in all directions) some short, blue light waves while allowing almost all longer, red light waves to pass straight through. When we look toward a part of the sky not near the sun, the blue color we see is blue light waves scattered down toward us from the white sunlight passing through the air overhead. Near sunrise and sunset, most of the light we see comes in nearly tangent to the Earth's surface, so that 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.
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.
2006-10-23 04:11:49
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answer #1
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answered by Anonymous
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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.)
2006-10-22 06:51:49
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answer #2
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answered by robin 3
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The sky is blue partly because air scatters short-wavelength light in preference to longer wavelengths. Combined, these effects scatter (bend away in all directions) some short, blue light waves while allowing almost all longer, red light waves to pass straight through. When we look toward a part of the sky not near the sun, the blue color we see is blue light waves scattered down toward us from the white sunlight passing through the air overhead. Near sunrise and sunset, most of the light we see comes in nearly tangent to the Earth's surface, so that 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.
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.
2006-10-22 06:40:19
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answer #3
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answered by Scabius Fretful 5
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There is nothing as sky. In the first book of moses , Genesis , it is , said that God said "let there be avault 'and a vault appeared .unfortunate it is the first proof that Moseswas ignorant of the nature of what we see as blue sky is nothing and thre is novault .What we see as a blue sky is the earth's atmosphere of air and the particles of energy that disperse the light rays of the sun coming down to earth through them. What we see as something above us is nothing !
The first book of moses depict's even God as an ignoramus.who did not know what the blue sky really was. The fact that Moses did not know what it was really is excusable , but the churches which have made umpteennumbr of corrections and upgradations to the bible could have done a good service to God by correcting such patent mistakes and enhance the image of God .Correcting mistakes is nothing worng.The atmosphere absorbs all the colours of the spectrum of sun's light except the light blue band of it .So we see the light blue colour over our head .
when we see a plane over our head we see it moving in the sky. wneh we see outside from the plane , we still see the blue colour sky above the plane.
2006-10-22 20:35:42
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answer #4
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answered by Infinity 7
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It's because so called diffuse sky radiation.
2006-10-22 06:30:16
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answer #5
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answered by Anonymous
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`cause you don´t use red sunglasses
2006-10-22 06:33:57
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answer #6
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answered by Christer C 1
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