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Why is the sky blue? |
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| In order to understand why the sky is blue, first we have to understand why some things appear a certain color. Visible light is made up of all colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, and everything in between. An object appears "blue" if it reflects (or more accurately, "scatters") more blue light than the other colors of light. For solid objects, those other colors are "absorbed", rather than scattered. For "clear" air, those other colors pass right through, without being absorbed. The sky is blue because the molecules of air scatter some of the blue light, while allowing the other colors of light to pass through. Why blue? Because the size of the molecules of air are close to the wavelength of blue light...about 0.0004 millimeters in diameter. | ||||||||
| Interesting facts: | ||||||||
| THE NEXT TIME YOU FLY... When flying in an airplane at 34,000 ft, you are above 75% of the atmosphere. If you look out the airplane window, and look up, you will notice that the sky is a much darker blue than you are used to seeing. This is because you are seeing some sky, but also some of outer space(!) | ||||||||
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