Why is the sky blue?

Question

My science teacher told me it was becasue space is black, but I thought it was the reflection of the water. His point was there is no water in Kansas, but there is lake and rivers for color. Who is right?

Answer 1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffuse_sky_radiation

Answer 2

Why is the sky blue?


Here is something interesting to think about: When you look at the sky at night, it is black, with the stars and the moon forming points of light on that black background. So why is it that, during the day, the sky does not remain black with the sun acting as another point of light? Why does the daytime sky turn a bright blue and the stars disappear?

The first thing to recognize is that the sun is an extremely bright source of light -- much brighter than the moon. The second thing to recognize is that the atoms of nitrogen and oxygen in the atmosphere have an effect on the sunlight that passes through them.

There is a physical phenomenon called Rayleigh scattering that causes light to scatter when it passes through particles that have a diameter one-tenth that of the wavelength (color) of the light. Sunlight is made up of all different colors of light, but because of the elements in the atmosphere the color blue is scattered much more efficiently than the other colors.

So when you look at the sky on a clear day, you can see the sun as a bright disk. The blueness you see everywhere else is all of the atoms in the atmosphere scattering blue light toward you. (Because red light, yellow light, green light and the other colors aren't scattered nearly as well, you see the sky as blue.)

Answer 3

The light (visible light) from the sun is reflected or absorbed by molecules in our Atmosphere (air), allowing more blue light though. The air scatters blue light making the sky look blue, so if you take away the air the sky will look black because there is nothing to scatter light with. (So the answer is refraction) using air as a prism

If you clime to the top of a mountain where the air is thinner and watch the sun rise or set. You can see all the colors of a rainbow. ;-)

Answer 4

The blue color of the sky is due to Rayleigh scattering. As light moves through the atmosphere, most of the longer wavelengths pass straight through. Little of the red, orange and yellow light is affected by the air.

However, much of the shorter wavelength light is absorbed by the gas molecules. The absorbed blue light is then radiated in different directions. It gets scattered all around the sky. Whichever direction you look, some of this scattered blue light reaches you. Since you see the blue light from everywhere overhead, the sky looks blue.

I'm sorry but a blue sky has little to do with bodies of water on the ground and the color of space. It's the way light is separated as it passes through a prism, in this case the prism is our atmosphere which filters out most light except blue and violet,

Answer 5

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 6

Neither. The sky is blue because at that thickness, air refracts light just a bit. Blue light is scattered, and the sky looks blue. When looking through more air, such as when the sun is near the horizon, more light is scattered, and the sky appears reddish.

Answer 7

The refraction of light from the Sun will bend in light from the blue end of the spectrum at higher angles of view. Dust catches and reflects that "blue-ness".

At low angles near dawn and dusk, the atmosphere accepts more of the spectrum and appears to contain more elements from the longer wavelengths (yellow through red).

Examine the diffraction through a prism.

Answer 8

The atmosphere scatters the blue section of the spectrum and absorbs all the other visible wave lengths of light.

Answer 9

actually the water reflects the sky, but the sky contains nitrogen that bends the spectrum of sunlight and appears blue.

Answer 10

its because the air in the sky scatters light , but the color blue penetrates through, so you can see it and only it when the light reaches your eyes

Answer 11

Its because of the water reflection to the sky.