Like, does the reflection from the ocean affect it, or is it the color of the ozon layer (or whatever it's called) or what?
2007-01-13 09:28:44 · 7 answers · asked by Steph 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Eri has it right, however, I want to expand on this a bit.
The light coming from the sun is white, which is to say all colors. As the light hit the atmosphere, scattering begins (as Eri said, it is called Rayleigh scattering). Now, lets say you are a molecule in the upper atmosphere. A photon of blue light hit a molecule and it scatters off in your direction. When you see this photon, which direction do you see it from? The sun, no! You see it from the direction of the first molecule. This is what happens billions of time before the light comes to the surface.
Blue and violet light are scattered more easily than red and orange, however, there is more blue light than violet light coming from the sun. Also, your senses are better at perievning blue than violet, so you see the entire sky as blue.
Unfortunatly, I can't put graphics up here, but that ought to give you a good idea.
2007-01-13 09:40:35 · answer #1 · answered by Walking Man 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The easiest way to thing of it is to look at a prism separate light. When light is bent at a certain angle it has a particular color. That is the down and dirty on why the sky is blue. Debris in the air will also affect the color of the sky.
2007-01-13 17:41:55 · answer #2 · answered by bubbas4x4gasm 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No and no. It's due to Rayleigh scattering of light by the atmosphere. Blue light is scattered more than red light, so the blue goes everywhere (all over the sky) and the red/yellow goes straight to your eye.
2007-01-13 17:32:06 · answer #3 · answered by eri 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The air itself has a slightly blue color. When you are looking at the sky you are seeing hundred kilometers of air and it's color starts to show.
2007-01-13 17:33:05 · answer #4 · answered by Leopold 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It's because of water crystals in the atmosphere. They reflect primarily blue light, so the over-all color is blue.
If that's how 'God' wanted it to be, then 'God' also gave us a perfectly rational explination.
2007-01-13 17:37:19 · answer #5 · answered by socialdeevolution 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
sunlight's white. white light's a combination of all colors. when sunlight/white light passes through molecules in air, it gets separated into different colors. there's more blue light than anything else so that's what we see.
2007-01-13 17:38:22 · answer #6 · answered by andrea 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Why: 'cause thats the color God wanted it to be
how: cause God put it that color
2007-01-13 17:32:29 · answer #7 · answered by Crazy Pants 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋