Why is the sky blue?

Answer 1

The first steps towards correctly explaining the colour of the sky were taken by John Tyndall in 1859. He discovered that when light passes through a clear fluid holding small particles in suspension, the shorter blue wavelengths are scattered more strongly than the red. This can be demonstrated by shining a beam of white light through a tank of water with a little milk or soap mixed in. From the side, the beam can be seen by the blue light it scatters; but the light seen directly from the end is reddened after it has passed through the tank. The scattered light can also be shown to be polarised using a filter of polarised light, just as the sky appears a deeper blue through polaroid sun glasses.

This is most correctly called the Tyndall effect, but it is more commonly known to physicists as Rayleigh scattering--after Lord Rayleigh, who studied it in more detail a few years later. He showed that the amount of light scattered is inversely proportional to the fourth power of wavelength for sufficiently small particles. It follows that blue light is scattered more than red light by a factor of (700/400)4 ~= 10.

Answer 2

The sky is blue also because of the reflection off of lakes,rivers and oceans. You can notice the sky get more blue as you approach these areas. I am serious. And blue is the only color that wont be accepted so blue is let off then giving the allusion of a blue sky.

Answer 3

Ha..... this is a funny question. It reminds me of my little brother.

But seriously now, basically because the ocean water is blue and it reflects back to the sky that's why. Now deal with it.

Answer 4

Well, light changes colors as it passes through water through scattering. Air isn't really clear, and has a lot of water suspended in it. When you look at a glass of water, you see right through it, but if you are in a pool and look you notice that the water gets murkier the further away you look. The reason for this is the same - the water in air really isn't invisible, it's just not dense enough to see. When you look up, you are looking through hundreds of miles of atmosphere, and you can't see through it all, because the sunlight is bouncing off (scattering) and it's blue. At night, when the sun is not bouncing off all of those little air molecules, you don't see them. When the sun is at an angle to the air you are looking at (sunrise, and sunset) it turns red instead of blue.

Answer 5

It is to do with refraction of light and the fact that the blue particles are dispersed furthest away from the sun. That is also why the sky , near the sun, appears red at sunset.

Answer 6

Maybe some people see the sky red or yellow...they are just taught it is called "blue" !

Answer 7

Because

Answer 8

its because of optical activity. water droplets in cloud acts like a prism and light get dispersed.& since ble light is of lowest frq. blue light is dispersed more

Answer 9

I thought it was blue and the sun was maize to honor the University of Michigan. I was wrong.

Answer 10

because the ocean is blue and the water reflects back