why the sky looks blue?

Answer 1

The sky appears 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.

Some of the false beliefs of why the sky is blue are that the sky reflects off the ocean and that the light scatters off dust in the air. These two theories cannot be true, as the sky in Kansas has the same hue as the sky over the middle of the Pacific Ocean

Answer 2

It's not the relfection of the ocean. It's called scattering, when the sunlight hits things in our atmosphere such as dust particles or water vapor the light scatters through out the air. The blue wavelengths are affected by this more than red wavelngths. That is why it looks blue. It looks orange as the sun is setting b/c the suns rays are hitting the particles in the atmosphere, again being scattered making the sky look orange as it sets.

Answer 3

Ordinary light is made up of seven colors. We see each of these colors only if they are reflected by something or split off in some other way. For example, leaves reflects green light and absorbs all other colors. Black absorbs all the the colors. White reflects all of them. When sunlight hits earth atmosphere, blue light is scattered by the air and it appears that the sky is blue.

Answer 4

A clear cloudless day-time sky is blue because molecules in the air scatter blue light from the sun more than they scatter red light. When we look towards the sun at sunset, we see red and orange colours because the blue light has been scattered out and away from the line of sight.

Answer 5

its not a reflection of the ocean. when light passes through the atmosphere, it is affected by the gases present. the red, yellow, and orange wavelengths are not affected that much and go straight to you [look at the sun (DON'T ACTUALLY DO THIS!), ok, think back to when you looked at the sun. What color was it, pure white? or did you see a bit of yellow?] The blue light however, becomes scatered in the atmosphere, constantly bouncing off the gases. check out this site for a better explanation: http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/sky_blue.html

Answer 6

Because the bonding angles of nitrogen molecules preferentially refract (scatter) blue wavelengths of light. Kinda like a diffraction grating.

There's also another wavelength in the green that you see sometimes just before sunrise or just after sunset. But it's only a very quick 'flash'.

Doug

Answer 7

whilst solar enters the earth's environment the radiations with decrease wavelength(or greater frequency) would be scattered extra whilst those with greater wavelength passes without lots project. Blue mild gets scattered extra suitable than crimson and so on... subsequently sky is blue in shade...

Answer 8

Not a reflection of the ocean-- just the way light bounces off of all the different gasses in the atmosphere.

Answer 9

droplets of water reflect off of a beam of light and a rainbow in space

Answer 10

Its because of scattering law.The other colours are scaterred
and only colour which is not scattered is blue