Ask Any Question

why is the sky blue and not any other color like purple or red?

Xx.Sara.xX - 2009-05-17 09:04:25 - Astronomy Space

why is the sky blue? i always wondered why its blue and not purple or green or red.why does it have to be blue?

Best Answer:

The sky consists of gases that scatter the light. The gas particles are much smaller than the wavelength of the light, meaning the scattering is Rayleigh Scattering. This occurs in all directions, and works best at short wavelengths. Because the blue and purple wavelengths are the shortest, they are scattered most efficiently. However, the gases in the atmosphere, and especially the oxygen and ozone, absorb the purple wavelengths, and therefore the purple is not observed. The other wavelengths (red, yellow and green) are not scattered enough to reach our eyes. Therefore, we see a blue sky. However, the sunlight itself is directed towards us by Mie Scattering, a different form that is not wavelength dependent, and is caused by particles that are larger than the wavelength of light, but still very small (such as dust). This type of scattering projects forwards, and that causes the sunlight to appear white or yellow to our eyes. Mie scattering is also one of the reasons that the evening sky is red. The blue light is scattered away by Rayleigh scattering from the observer when the Sun is at a low angle, but the red light is scattered by Mie scattering towards the observer. That is why one person sees a blue sky and another person at a different location will see a red sky at the same moment. Don't listen to anyone saying the sky reflects the ocean; that is complete and utter nonsense.

Answers:

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. 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. Sunlight is made up of all the colors of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. The gas molecules in the atmosphere interact with the sunlight before the light reaches our eyes. The gas molecules in the atmosphere scatter the higher-energy (high frequency) blue portion of the sunlight more than they scatter the lower-energy red portion of the sunlight (this is called Rayleigh scattering, named for the physicist Lord John Rayleigh). The Sun appears reddish-yellow and the sky surrounding the Sun is colored by the scattered blue waves. When the Sun is lower in the horizon (near sunrise or sunset), the sunlight must travel through a greater thickness of atmosphere than it does when it is overhead, and even more light is scattered (not just blue, but also green, yellow, and orange) before the light reaches your eyes. This makes the sun look much redder.

because there is no sky it is a reflection of the ocean the sun hits it so hard that it turns the dark blue from the ocean into a light blue

Something about the reflection of particles that make up the sky

it's the Violet rays silly hitting the sky

Nitrogen atmosphere. Nature of absorbance, reflection and scattering of light in nitrogen gas leads to a bluish color. Other planets have different gases in their atmospheres and present a different color. It all relates to the energy of the electrons in the atoms and in the molecular bonds, without going into too much detail.

The sky consists of gases that scatter the light. The gas particles are much smaller than the wavelength of the light, meaning the scattering is Rayleigh Scattering. This occurs in all directions, and works best at short wavelengths. Because the blue and purple wavelengths are the shortest, they are scattered most efficiently. However, the gases in the atmosphere, and especially the oxygen and ozone, absorb the purple wavelengths, and therefore the purple is not observed. The other wavelengths (red, yellow and green) are not scattered enough to reach our eyes. Therefore, we see a blue sky. However, the sunlight itself is directed towards us by Mie Scattering, a different form that is not wavelength dependent, and is caused by particles that are larger than the wavelength of light, but still very small (such as dust). This type of scattering projects forwards, and that causes the sunlight to appear white or yellow to our eyes. Mie scattering is also one of the reasons that the evening sky is red. The blue light is scattered away by Rayleigh scattering from the observer when the Sun is at a low angle, but the red light is scattered by Mie scattering towards the observer. That is why one person sees a blue sky and another person at a different location will see a red sky at the same moment. Don't listen to anyone saying the sky reflects the ocean; that is complete and utter nonsense.

takes a long answer so go to the "WEB" and ask --why is sky blue. you will get all you need

Well,god only know da secret bout dis because he has created it n what ever god do He do 4 our good..

due to brownian motion...

blue colour has the least wave length.blue colour of the sky is due to the scattering of the light.verify raman scattering

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.