Physics help, anyone?

Question

For a project I am about to design, I need to understand Rayleigh Scattering. However, I have not taken any physics classes, and have not studied any math higher than college algebra. I need someone I can communicate with who can help me understand what Rayleigh Scattering is, as well as how it works- all in the simplest terms possible. I also need to be able to contact someone to discuss this topic, wether it be by e-mail or messenger, as I will probably not completely understand the first explanation of the concepts behind Rayleigh Scattering.

Thank you :)

The Complete Sentences Nerd.

Answer 1

In layman's terms:

Rayleigh Scattering occurs because light must pass through the atmosphere to reach your eye. Light is made up of photons, which act as both a wave and a particle. If the photon directly hits or comes very close to a gas molecule, then it bounces off and goes some other direction.

All wavelengths of light are susceptible to being bounced away. However, the key to understanding Raleigh Scattering, is that shorter wavelengths of light are scattered further (the dependency is to the 4th power) than higher wavelengths of light. Violet and blue are the shortest wavelengths of light, so they are scattered further. However, the sun does not emit as much violet light as other colors, the atmosphere absorbs violet light more readily, and our eyes are not as sensitive to violet light.

So, at noon, when the sun is directly overhead, most of the light passes through the atmosphere without hitting anything. The sun, therefore, appears white, because all of the colors are combined. Some of that light bounces off, however, and bounces through the atmosphere. Thus, the sky around the sun appears blue.

At dawn and dusk, the sun is oblique to your viewpoint, and the light has to pass through more of the atmosphere to get to your eye. Since the light passes through more atmosphere, there is a higher likelihood of collision - thus, the lower wavelengths of light are also scattered (but not as much), causing the area around the sun to be red, and areas farther from the sun to be blue.