Why the sky is blue?

Question

Why the sky is blue?

Answer 1

oxygen is blue nitrogen is greenish

Answer 2

Cause of our atmosphere

Answer 3

your guess is just as good as mine.....

Answer 4

because it sees a cloudy future

Answer 5

Because light from the sun is scattering by atoms and molecules in the atmosphere.

Light scattering by particles depends on the relative "sizes" of the photons and the particles.

In the case of visible light, molecules are much smaller than the wavelength of light, so blue light gets scattered much more than red light.

So as light from the sun enters the atmosphere, more blue photons get reflected (not absorbed) by molecules than red photons - but then the blue photons get reflected again and again until they reach us. So the blue light comes from all over, the red light comes almost straight from the sun.

This is also why the sun looks redder at sunrise and sunset - the light's path through the atmosphere is longer when the sun is on the horizon than when it is high in the sky.

Interaction of light with the atmosphere does all sorts of weird and wonderful things that physics can explain:

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/Hba...



Or look at the many times this question has been asked before by searching for your question – I think it has been asked over 7000 times

Answer 6

it is clear actually. the water from the ocean reflects into the sky. so that is basicly not right that the sky is blue.

Answer 7

It does NOT reflect the ocean!!

Some of these answers are driving me mad, I cannot accept this!!!>>>>>>

White light is made up of 7 colours,  you know, the colours of the

rainbow, these colours are dispersed everywhere, the remaining colours are green and blue, these go to the sky, green only appears when the sun is rising, rarely, so blue shows most of the time.

The OCEAN reflects the SKY, not the other way round...

Answer 8

Because it is mirroring the ocean. I am sure if the ocean was red then the sky would be red too

Answer 9

Its actually white light  with dispersion/refraction/dissapation

Id know i learnt it in science today.

Answer 10

This question has been asked  over 8000 times so far, and  I've prepared a simple answer, without too much science:

The technically correct answer is that the blue light is scattered by the air molecules in the atmosphere (referred to as Rayleigh scattering).  The blue wavelength is scattered more, because the scatteing effect increases with the inverse of the fourth power of the incident wavelength.

OK, but I've known science graduates who don't understand what this means.

Here's my attempt at an answer without too much physics:

I think most people know that sunlight is made up of light of several different wavelengths, and can be split up into the colours of the rainbow. Blue light has the shorter wavelength, and red the longest wavelength.

When sunlight hits the molecules in the atmosphere, the light is absorbed; causing the molecules vibrate and and give off, or 're-emit' the light. Because the molecules vibrate in all directions, the light is emitted in all directions (called 'scattering'). Because the blue wavelength is shorter and more energetic, it reacts much more with the air molecules than the red and yellow wavelengths; which tend to pass straight through.

Because the blue radiation is re-emitted from the air molecules in all directions, and it also gets 'bounced around from molecule to molecules in this way, it seems to us looking from the ground that the blue light is coming from everywhere; hence the sky seems blue. And of course; we are looking upwards through several kilometres of air; so there are plenty of molecules to scatter the blue light.

Near sunset, because of the low angle of the sunlight, the blue light has already brrn scattered away, and we see more of the red and yellow wavelendth, hence the colours of the setting sun.

BTW: The sky isn't blue because of a reflection of the sea. its the other way round. As well as reflecting the blue from the sky at the surface, sea water also scatters the blue light. The blue colour of the sea is a little more complicated, because as well as the water molecules scattering the blue light, the water absorbs more of the red and yellow wavelengths, leaving the blue part of the spectrum, as well as part of the green (which is why deep water can appear bluish-green).

This scattering effect is even stronger with ice; which results in the intense blue colour we see if we look down a crevasse in a glacier, or down a hole in the snow made by a ski stock..

My thanks to varoius contributers for correcting me on some details.

For complete, scientific explanations, look up 'blue sky' in Wikipedia, and follow through the references.

Answer 11

Your blood is blue too!!

Answer 12

cause God made it that way

Answer 13

coz, the paranormal sides have connective lights-they reflect!!!!

Answer 14

coz it's not cloudy

Answer 15

Because a purple sky just doesn't look right.

JK

The sun emits rays. It comes to earth like a prism (rainbow colors) and blue is the color we see.

I actually paid attention 5 years ago in the 7th grade.

Answer 16

I think it is a reflection of the ocean and the gases in the air.