Is the sky blue or is the water blue? Which one is blue?

Question

When you go into open seas the water has the deepest blue color I've ever seen, but if you take some of it and put it into a glass, it's not blue at all. The same can be said of the sky. during day it's blue, but at night it turns black . Then again, that's space, but what color would the sky be?

Answer 1

Hi. In thin layers they are both colorless. If you look at the edge of a piece of window glass you will see green. Yet we call it 'colorless'.

Answer 2

The sky is blue because it scatters blue light from the sun. The sea is blue for a number of reasons, but water genuinely is blue because it absorbs light from the red end of the spectrum and only transmits from the blue region. There is an element of reflection of the blue sky above, but that's not the whole story by any means. Anyone who doubts that should visit the blue grotto on Malta, where water in caves (and therefore not able to reflect the blue sky) is the most amazing blue colour I have ever seen.

Answer 3

Ok..well water is clear, i think thats well understood...

As for the sky...The light from the sky is a result of diffuse sky radiation which results in a light blue colour being perceived by the human eye. 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 can turn a multitude of colours such as purple (especially near sunset and sunrise) and black at night.

Answer 4

Oceans appear blue because they are reflecting the sky.

The sky appears blue because it filters the sun's light into that shade of blue for us to see on the surface of Earth.

The changing colors of the sky at sunset and sunrise are caused by the same effect, however, when the sun is low in the sky, the light rays are refracted (bent) more, and appear colors other than blue.

Watery surfaces always reflect what is above them. Such as sitting across a pond from trees and bushes, and seeing the landscape up-sidedown in the water surface.

The two answers above me are completely wrong.

Answer 5

Water is blue, but not blue enough to notice in a glassful. Fill a deep, white bath and you can see it, though.

The sky is really black (it's just empty space) but we see it through an atmosphere full of tiny particles that scatter light around, so that it no longer looks black. The scattering is more efficient for blue light, so the sky looks blue – dark blue where the air is clear (not much scattering) pale blue where there is a lot of pollution and haze (lots of scattering).

Answer 6

The sky only is blue and the blue colour of the water is the reflection of the sky, which makes the perspective to appear blue. That's it!

Answer 7

The color is a perception of your eyes. Depending what density, intensity, reflection the matter has and your position to the matter determines, what color you see. Sun light is made up of different wave length, some of them are building the visible colors for humans. So, the matter it shines on, filters and reflects some waves, and doesn't others. Black is just a surface, which doesn't reflect any waves, where white reflects all visible waves.

Answer 8

they are both blue. the sky is blue because of light scattering, blue/purple light gets scattered and red/orange penetrates right through, so we see blue. that is probably also the case with water. if i fill up my bathtub, the water takes a very slight blue tint.

Answer 9

This sounds like it should be one of those questions on "ARe you smarter than a fifth grader?" haha

Answer 10

earth is blue.