daytime sky

The cosmos at our fingertips.
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leszczyc
Asternaut
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Oct 12, 2006 4:32 pm

daytime sky

Post by leszczyc » Thu Oct 12, 2006 4:45 pm

what makes the sky blue?

briangonzalo
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Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2007 3:34 am

Re: daytime sky

Post by briangonzalo » Mon Jun 18, 2007 6:17 am

leszczyc wrote:what makes the sky blue?
the ocean... :)

master01
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Joined: Thu Aug 30, 2007 6:23 am

Post by master01 » Thu Aug 30, 2007 6:31 am

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.

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