why is the sky blue?

Question

I ALWAYS WONDERED WHY THE SKY IS BLUE SO PLEASE GIVE ME AN ANSWER

Answer 1

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.

On Earth, the sun appears yellow. If you were out in space, or on the moon, the sun would look white. In space, there is no atmosphere to scatter the sun's light. On Earth, some of the shorter wavelength light (the blues and violets) are removed from the direct rays of the sun by scattering. The remaining colors together appear yellow.

Also, out in space, the sky looks dark and black, instead of blue. This is because there is no atmosphere. There is no scattered light to reach your eyes.

Answer 2

It's a complicated answer - the reason is due to something known as Rayleigh Scattering, if you look this up in a search engine it will tell you in detail.

In a very simple nutshell - light comes from the sun, light contains every colour of the rainbow, molecules in the air block certain colours of light from reaching us, the mix of colours that do reach us make the sky appear blue.

In an evening more light is bounced off the molecules so a different mix of colours reaches us which is why sunsets are red, orange, yellow etc.

Just for interest - the seas and oceans appear blue because they reflect the sky. In reality neither the oceans or the sky have any colour (other than impurities such as soil, dust etc)

Answer 3

Its due to Rayleigh scattering - certainly not because its reflecting the ocean which people sometimes say! Rayleigh scattering involved the scattering of light by particles smaller than the wavelength of light. It has a smaller effect on colours with longer wavelengths and that is why the sky is blue - and also in fact why the sun is yellow - if you added up all the blue tint in the sky and focused it in the area of sun you would get its actual colour of bright white.

Physicists used to say that Rayleigh diffraction was responsible for the reddish tint in sunrise and sunset because the light had to travel through more atmosphere to reach us however this is currently disputed and there is another optical theorem at work called 'Lorenz-Mie theory'. Kind regards.

Answer 4

It has nothing to do with the ocean or sea. The sky is blue because various colors from the sun is reflected. Blue is usually the dominant color. The ocean, seas, and lake has nothing to do with it because they do not cover the entire world in order to make the sky blue.

Answer 5

Maybe becuz of the pigments or reflection of the water from the ocean?

Answer 6

Reflection of the sea.