why is the sky blue?

Question

is it a reflection of the sea, or light reflectiong through nitrogen particles... or any others...

Answer 1

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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 2

I've already voted for jlao4's answer, but am posting this to lend support. Scattering explains both the blue sky and red at sunset and sunrise.

When light passes through a medium, particularly in a gaseous medium, some of the light is scattered. The scattering happens for all colors and in all directions, but a couple of things are true. More energy is scattered at high frequencies than low ones (more blue light than red) and light scattered off at an angle (rather than straight back) is at least partially polarized.

Related but unasked-for factoid: bees use this polarization for navigation.

Answer 3

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.

Answer 4

The particles in the atmosphere reflects the light in a way that we see the blue colour.

Its not the reflection of the sea.

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.



More details here.. http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/sky_blue.html

Answer 5

the phonomena that results in the "blue" daytime sky is called Raleigh scattering ... the majority of the light from the sun (which is roughtly "white light", i.e. contains a mix of all colors) which reaches the reaches the ground is in the blue part of the visible spectrum.

try Google "why is the sky blue" for a lot of good explanations ... a few of which are listed below

Answer 6

Sky is blue due to the refraction of sunlight through the atmosphere - it has nothing at all to do with the sea.
At a steep angle ie, straight up, the sky will be deepest blue. At the shallowest angle, ie, at the horizon (depending on the dust levels in the atmosphere) it may appear red

Answer 7

well first of all it is not reflecting the sea because the sea isnt blue. turn on the tap and you see that wather is infact translusent. the sea reflects the sky that is why the sea seems blue. the sky is blue because of particels of loads of gasses in the atmosphere mack light turn the sky blue. from outer space it is always black because it is endless and there is no light to give it any other colour beyond a certin point.

Answer 8

not the sea.

The white light from the sun is a mixture of all colours of the rainbow. This was demonstrated by Isaac Newton, who used a prism to separate the different colours and so form a spectrum. The colours of light are distinguished by their different wavelengths. The visible part of the spectrum ranges from red light with a wavelength of about 720 nm, to violet with a wavelength of about 380 nm, with orange, yellow, green, blue and indigo between. The three different types of colour receptors in the retina of the human eye respond most strongly to red, green and blue wavelengths, giving us our colour vision.

Answer 9

Air particles reflect blue light from Earth. Bodies of water are blue from reflecting the sky.

Answer 10

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.

Check this website: http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/General/BlueSky/blue_sky.html