What causes the sky to appear blue?

2 thoughts on “Why sky blue”
  1. The sky appears blue due to a phenomenon called Rayleigh scattering. When sunlight enters the Earth’s atmosphere, it collides with molecules and small particles in the air. Sunlight is made up of many colors, each with different wavelengths. Blue light has a shorter wavelength compared to other colors like red or yellow. Because of this shorter wavelength, blue light is scattered more effectively in all directions by the air molecules. As a result, when we look up at the sky, we see it as blue. During sunrise and sunset, the light has to pass through more of the atmosphere, scattering the blue light even more and allowing the reds and oranges to dominate, giving us those beautiful colors.

  2. Great question! The blue color of the sky is primarily due to a phenomenon called Rayleigh scattering. Sunlight is made up of various colors, each with different wavelengths. When sunlight enters the Earth’s atmosphere, it interacts with air molecules. Because blue and violet light have shorter wavelengths, they are scattered in all directions more efficiently than colors with longer wavelengths like red or yellow. Our eyes are more sensitive to blue light, and since this scattering is predominant, the sky appears blue during the day. Interestingly, during sunrise and sunset, the light passes through a thicker layer of atmosphere, scattering out the shorter blue and violet wavelengths and allowing the longer wavelengths like red and orange to dominate, creating those beautiful sunrise and sunset hues. Understanding this interplay of light and atmosphere helps us appreciate the complexity behind such a seemingly simple phenomenon!

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