does anyone really know why the sky is blue?

Question

i know, wierd

Answer 1

It is because of something called Raman Effect.
Light rays reflect off of water vapor molecules in the atmosphere, and reflect the blue color spectrum.

Answer 2

The sky is blue because the atmosphere scatters (Rayleigh scattering) shorter wavelengths of light more effectively than others, and that part of the spectrum corresponds to the color blue.

Notice, when the sun is lower in the horizon, the sky changes color and takes on a reddish, orange color.

When you see a cloud, it's white or gray, right? Water droplets in clouds are larger than the gas molecules in the atmosphere, so scattering in the clouds is independent of wavelength. In other words, there is no preferential scattering in clouds and everything is scattered equally, leading the clouds to be whitish.

Search for "rayleigh scattering and blue sky" or something like that and you'll likely see that I'm right.

Answer 3

Yes, they do. And that question has been asked and answered countless times on this forum. Basically it is scattering of light from gas molecules in the air. Blue light scatters more easily than red light.

Answer 4

Perform your own experiment.

If your bathroom is white this will work.

Fill your bathtub with water and add blue food coloring until it is the color of the ocean. Look at the ceiling over your tub.

What color is your ceiling?

Now, fill your tub with plain water and paint the ceiling the color of the sky.

What color is the water in your tub?

I have given you the answer already but you will understand what exactly the answer is when your experiment is complete.

PS. The food coloring will come out with a lot of scrubbing.

Answer 5

Yes, almost everyone knows. It's due to the oxygen in the atmosphere. Oxygen reflects blue spectra and absorbs the other spectra, thus making the sky appear blue. Since at close range oxygen-rich atmosphere is essentially transparent, we don't notice in front of our faces.

Answer 6

Diffuse sky radiation is solar radiation reaching the earth's surface after having been scattered from the direct solar beam by molecules or suspensoids in the atmosphere. Also called skylight, diffuse skylight, or sky radiation. Of the total light removed from the direct solar beam by scattering in the atmosphere (approximately 25 percent of the incident radiation), about two-thirds ultimately reaches the earth as diffuse sky radiation.

Scattering is the process by which small particles suspended in a medium of a different index of refraction redirect a portion of the incident radiation in all directions. In elastic scattering, no energy transformation results, only a change in the spatial distribution of the radiation. The science of optics usually uses the term to refer to the deflection of photons that occurs when they are absorbed and re-emitted by atoms or molecules.

Contents [hide]
1 Why is the sky blue?
2 Neutral points
3 Under an overcast sky
4 See also
5 External links
6 Books



[edit] Why is the sky blue?

Clear blue sky.The sky is blue because air scatters short-wavelength light in preference to longer wavelengths. 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.


[edit] Neutral points
There are three commonly detectable points of zero polarization of diffuse sky radiation (known as neutral points) lying along the vertical circle through the sun.

The Arago point, named for its discoverer, is customarily located at about 20° above the antisolar point; but it lies at higher altitudes in turbid air. The latter property makes the Arago distance a useful measure of atmospheric turbidity.
The Babinet point, discovered by Babinet in 1840, typically lies only 15° to 20° above the sun, and hence is difficult to observe because of solar glare.
The Brewster point, discovered by Brewster in 1840, is located about 15° to 20° directly below the sun; hence it is difficult to observe because of the glare of the sun.

[edit] Under an overcast sky

Overcast sky.There is essentially zero direct sunlight under an overcast sky, so all light is then diffuse sky radiation. The flux of light is not very wavelength dependent because the cloud droplets are larger than the light's wavelength and scatter all colors approximately equally. The light passes through the translucent clouds in a manner similar to frosted glass. The intensity ranges (roughly) from 1/6 of direct sunlight for relatively thin clouds down to 1/1000 of direct sunlight under the extreme of thickest storm clouds.

Answer 7

I always thought it was because our atmosphere was blue but I could be wrong I'm only 12!

Answer 8

cuz we all have demented eyesight and can't see that it's really green....

Answer 9

They do (look up).

Answer 10

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