Why is the sky blue?

Answer 1

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 2

Fact: It has nothing to do with the oceans. That is a myth. The reason why the Sky is blue is because how the atmosphere filters the sunlight.

Ask yourself, why is the sky red during a sunset? It is the same reason. The sun's light shines through the atmosphere of Earth and displays a certain color depending on how much the light passes through.

check this out...

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/General/BlueSky/blue_sky.html

Answer 3

The sky is blue in colour only because of the refraction of sunlight by the dust particles in our atmosphere.

In early morning and in evening, the sunlight has to travel greater distance in our atmoshpere so only the longer wave lenght ray (red) can be seen (all the other rays gets refracted). This is the reason for sky (as well as sun) getting light red colour during dawn and dusk.

Answer 4

It is due to the refraction of sunlight as it enters our atmosphere. Astronauts in orbit will see a black sky, since the atmosphere is all below them. If we had either a thicker or a thinner atmosphere - the color of the sky would be different. At sunset - the sun shines through an apparent "thicker" layer of atmosphere than when it shines straight down, thus changing the color of the sky where it happens to be.

Answer 5

i agree with olympid.. sumthing or ohter. the sea is blue on a fairly clear day becasue it reflects the blue from the sky, not the other way round !!!! the sea is actually a greeny colour from the salt, or seathrough like normal water depending on the purity of it

Answer 6

from what i understand, it is because of the oceans. 2/3 of the earth is water and we see that reflected in the sky. if you were on mars' surface the sky would appear reddish.

Answer 7

Just because

Answer 8

Because it is...