Why is the sky blue?

Question

Is it something to do with scattering & wavelength?

Answer 1

The sky is blue partly because air scatters short-wavelength light in preference to longer wavelengths. Combined, these effects scatter (bend away in all directions) some short, blue light waves while allowing almost all longer, red light waves to pass straight through. When we look toward a part of the sky not near the sun, the blue color we see is blue light waves scattered down toward us from the white sunlight passing through the air overhead. Near sunrise and sunset, most of the light we see comes in nearly tangent to the Earth's surface, so that the light's path through the atmosphere is so long that much of the blue and even yellow light is scattered out, leaving the sun rays and the clouds it illuminates red.

Scattering and absorption are major causes of the attenuation of radiation by the atmosphere. Scattering varies as a function of the ratio of the particle diameter to the wavelength of the radiation. When this ratio is less than about one-tenth, Rayleigh scattering occurs in which the scattering coefficient varies inversely as the fourth power of the wavelength. At larger values of the ratio of particle diameter to wavelength, the scattering varies in a complex fashion described, for spherical particles, by the Mie theory; at a ratio of the order of 10, the laws of geometric optics begin to apply.

Answer 2

Yes, it is Rayleigh scattering, caused by the atmospheric molecules (mostly oxygen and nitrogen). Molecules are small compared to the wavelength of light, unlike dust particles that are large. When light (or any wave) scatters off of a particle that is small compared to its wavelength, the smaller wavelengths (violet, blue) scatter more than the longer wavelengths (red, orange).

Now, why is the sky blue? The molecules in the atmosphere scatter sunlight at a different angle from the original direction of the light. So when we look at a part of the sky away from the sun, what we are really seeing is light from the sun that has scattered off of molecules toward our eyes. Because the violet and blue light is scattered much more than the red and orange light, it appears blue.

So, if the blue light is scattered more than the red and orange, that means the red and orange light from the sun tend to pass directly from the sun to our eyes. That is why the sun tends to get more orange and red as it sets - more of the violet, blue, and eventually green and yellow light is scattered away because when the sun sets, it passes through more atmosphere. So what is left over is mostly the orange and red that does not scatter much.

Answer 3

Microscopic particles in the atmosphere scatter blue light down to the observer on the surface, while allowing longer wavelength red light to go straight on. This also leads to the Sun looking very red when it is low down in the sky and is seen through a greater thickness of atmosphere, since now most of the blue light has been scattered away from your line of sight.

Answer 4

The sky is blue because the molecules in the sky resonate to the frequency corresponding to the color blue. Said another way, the molecules absorb at the wavelength corresponding to the color blue.

Still another view point is that of Rayleigh scattering, where light scatters of the molecules in the atmosphere. For shorter wavelength, higher frequency light, there is little Rayleigh scattering. For lower wavelengths near the color blue, there is Rayleigh scattering, causing blue light to be scattered in all directions.

Answer 5

U should wear it with dark wash skinny jeans,gray jeans or black jeans. These would look best with a sky blue shirt

Answer 6

It is said that the sky reflects off the sea.

Answer 7

its not always blue,its gray when its going to rain,it can be red at sunrise/sunset, and of course black at night,its only blue when its sunny

Answer 8

I would say that The sky is blue because of gases and the athmosphere held in by gravity...

Answer 9

Because it's not pink, it's a boy

Answer 10

the land bagsey'd green first.