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i always thought the sky was blue coz of something to do with the spectrum but woteva can someone explain

2007-01-27 07:47:43 · 31 answers · asked by funkygurl123 3 in Science & Mathematics Earth Sciences & Geology

another thing ..
if it DOES reflect the water then how come the sky is still blue where there's no water?

2007-01-27 07:53:34 · update #1

ye but why is the sky blue

2007-01-27 07:54:08 · update #2

Karen C the grass is green coz they ran out of blue paint

lol thats like the not funniest joke ever

2007-01-27 07:55:28 · update #3

ok the reason i asked this question is coz i saw another question that was why is the sky blue and the best answer was because it reflects the water

2007-01-27 07:58:13 · update #4

31 answers

Sunlight is made up of all the colors of the spectrum. When you combine all these colors you get white light. When the white light passes through the atmosphere of the earth, it is broken down into it's colors. Colors with longer wave lenghts easily pass through. Blue light has a shorter wavelength. Thus, the blue waves bounce off gas molecules in the atmosphere that in turn eventually absorbs the blue light. This causes the sky to be blue in color.
The color of water has nothing to do with the sky. Water is in FACT blue. It's a very faint blue ( so faint it looks transparent in small quantities ). Whenever a great amount of water is in one place, you will see it's true color. Remember, that even large indoor swimming pools are blue in color, even though the sky isn't above it.

2007-01-28 07:21:19 · answer #1 · answered by Count Acumen 5 · 1 1

There can be many reasons for different "colors"
of ocean water or fresh water.

The sky condition can make a big difference, as
a clear blue sky will be reflected by the water
as a darker color, whereas a cloudy sky will be
reflected as a lighter color.

The depth of the water changes how much light is
reflected from the sea bottom below. For shallow
water, such as near a beach, the light reflected from
the sand below the water will make the water look
lighter (thus green) than it will look if you are
in deep water (where little or no light is reflected
from the bottom, resulting in dark blue water).

Light is also reflected from the interior of the
water also, and the color of whatever is in the water
(seaweed, soil, suspended sand, etc.) will affect
the color that you see from the water.

The Sun angle affects the water color also, as less
light is reflected from the surface, bottom, and interior
of the water near noontime than is reflected during early
morning or evening. The water is likely to look darker
around noontime.

Not all of the oceans are even the same color, or even the same
color in different places. Mostly this has to do with what is in
the water. Near shore, deep currents push up considerable amounts of minerals from the seabeds, and microscopic life florishes. In deeper seas, although by no means devoid of life, the algeal blooms are not present, so there is a clearer view through the water. Different oceans have different mineral content as well, meaning some take on an almost teal appearence, while others may appear more greyish in color. I can tell you from expierience that I've seen every shade of blue imaginable (and a few I'd never imagined) in the Pacific ocean, depending on where I was, the weather, and the time of year.

2007-01-27 23:33:28 · answer #2 · answered by rajeev_iit2 3 · 0 1

The color of the sky is a result of diffuse sky radiation and the fact that air is actually a very transparent purple color. On a sunny day the Earth sky usually looks as a blue gradient — dark in the zenith, light near the horizon (due to Rayleigh scattering). It turns orange and red during sunrise and sunset, and becomes black at night.

During daylight the sky has the appearance of a deep blue surface, but this is the result of the air scattering sunlight.

There is no "blue object" above the earth in any normal sense, so it is hard to say what object the sky is. The sky is thus sometimes defined as the denser gaseous zone of a planet's atmosphere.

At night the sky has the appearance of a black surface or region scattered with stars. But if we then say that the sky is the entire visible universe, it would not be the same thing we see during the day.

During the day the sun can be seen in the sky, unless covered by clouds. In the night sky (and to some extent during the day) the moon, planets and stars are visible in the sky. Some of the natural phenomena seen in the sky are clouds, rainbows, and aurorae. Lightning can also be seen in the sky during storms. As a result of human activities, smog during the day and light radiance during the night are often seen above large cities (see also light pollution).

In the field of astronomy, the sky is also called the celestial sphere. This is an imaginary dome where the sun, stars, planets, and the moon are seen to be travelling. The celestial sphere is divided into regions called constellations.

See skies of other planets for descriptions of the skies of various planets and moons in the solar system.

2007-01-29 10:31:06 · answer #3 · answered by _ 4 · 1 0

Your question can be answered in 2 part:

Why is the Sky Blue?

a certain property about light and all electromagnetic radiations in general is that the higher the frequency, that is the shorter the wavelength of a wave the more it gets scattered by a medium. This means that waves with longer wavelengths and lower frequencies travel a larger distance because they don't get scatterd easily. In our case, as you go from red to blue, you go from lower to higher frequencies. So, as the light passes our atmosphere, more of the blue and violet light gets scattered, there by giving you a sense that the sky is blue. the thicker the atmospehere gets the bigger the range of frequencies it will scatter which leads us into another good example. At sunset and sunrise, the Sun is low on the horizon which means geometrically its light passes through a thicker atmoshere leading to the scattering of some orange, yellow and red giving the sky its charcteristic orangy-redish tint. Of course since the least light to get scattered and pass will be the Red (the longer wavelength) the sun will look to you redder at sunset and sunrise !!

second: why are the oceans blue?

if you got my discussion for the first, you would be able to answer this yourself :).......Water is an even harder medium to pass through, consequently, all your blue and violet spectrum is more or less scattered after just 30-40 m giving you the very blue color of deep water, you will see that the shallower the water gets the less blue it will scatter, thats why water color in a swimming pool is lighter than the sea....

A final addition to try and make this answer as complete as possible, i mentioned that this is a property of ALL electromagnetic waves, SO.....the same principles apply for ....Radio!!!

FM Radio uses a higer frequency, meaning a higher energy, thus better quality BUT in return, it gets scatterd more easily thus it has a small range say just within your city. National AM radio uses a longer wavelength, thus lower energy which will not give you the same quality of sounf BUT....will not get scattered that easily and can have a bigger range to cover!

2007-01-27 17:35:33 · answer #4 · answered by Ramy E 2 · 1 1

The sky is blue because of REFRACTION.
The atmoshere around the earth filters other colours out of the visible electromagnetic spectrum,leaving only blue.

Water is often blue for similar reasons,the rest of the colours are absorbed by the waters impurities and only the blue end of the spectrum is reflected.
The sky and the seas colour are NOT reflected on to each other.

2007-01-27 15:57:27 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 2 0

EC and Ramy E are both correct. Everyone else who answered should stick to answering questions they understand (or at least can explain in an understandable way). Ramy E's answer is by far the best one.

The fact of the matter is, the sky is reflected by water - but that is not why it appears blue. The sky is blue for the same reason that water is blue -- but they are both blue. Both appear clear in smaller quantities, but when you look through them on a huge scale (ie - the entire sky or the deep ocean), their blue color is clearly visible. As Ramy said - this is why a swimming pool appears faintly blue, but the ocean has a deep blue color (and why the shallow parts of the sea are a lighter blue than the deep ocean).

Whoever recieved an answer that the sky reflects the blue ocean and chose it as the best answer was unfortunately very confused. Whoever gave that answer was unfortunately a complete idiot.

2007-01-27 18:06:58 · answer #6 · answered by brooks b 4 · 0 2

The sky is NOT blue because it reflects the water!!! The trioxide that is in the Earth's atmoshere filters out red and yellow when light comes through at an angle, only allowing blue to come through. (The reason the sun is yellow and orange is because the sunlight comes straight through the atmosphere and isn't filtered that much.)

2007-01-27 19:40:09 · answer #7 · answered by Bob 2 · 0 0

The high Nitrogen content in the air (about 80%) is what causes the sky to appear blue.
Not the reflection of the water.

The sea appears to be blue because thats what colour water is. But a very faint blue, almost colourless.
But in quantities like in seas and oceans, the colour is obvious. You'll note that the deeper the body of water, the darker the blue.

Any greenness you sometimes see in water is due to microscopic plant life.

2007-01-27 15:55:31 · answer #8 · answered by Bloke Ala Sarcasm 5 · 4 1

the sky and the water are not blue due to they reflect each other. The sky is blue becuse of refraction and the natural colour of water is blue,very light blue to be seen in large quantities.

2007-01-27 20:02:44 · answer #9 · answered by edd 3 · 0 0

No it is definitely not anything to do with water. That was not a good answer.
You are right to think it is due to scattering in the atmosphere - it's called Rayleigh scattering - the scattering of light by gas molecules. This works better for short wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum (of which all the colours are part of - e.g. a rainbow is when they are split up) and more of this blue scattered light reflects down to our eyes.
Mie scattering is similar put is scattering caused by much larger particles (not molecules) in the air.

2007-01-27 16:49:58 · answer #10 · answered by Rickolish 3 · 1 1

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