Why is the sky blue? Best answer on the web

Posted in: darrelrussell.com edit
08 Jan 2009
  • Why is the sky blue?


  • Yes ... But what ever happened to Birdie?

    He/she failed to rate the Answer; he/she never asked another Question; he/she is the only user to my knowledge who has never had a GA behind his/her handle.
    There is more to this than meets the eye which makes me wonder ...

    Is the Sky really Blue?


  • Well, ...

    http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=38097


  • The question I mean - not birdie, sorry :-)


  • And another web site touching on the phenomena is the eponymous
    http://www.why-is-the-sky-
    blue.org/.


  • You are absolutely right, Pink!

    Why would a Birdie ask such a question in the first place?

    Curiouser and curiouser ...


  • http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/sky_blue.html is another reference. Also, congratulations on posting the very first GA question - a piece of net history!


  • Light from the Sun (white light) is made up of many colours - red, green, blue,
    and so on. Each of these colours has a different wavelength and frequency. When
    light reaches the atmosphere it hits gas molecules which scatter the light in
    all directions. This scattering is called Rayleigh scattering after Lord
    Rayleigh who worked out the mathematical equations to describe it.

    So how does Rayleigh scattering work? Rayleigh scattering only happens when the
    molecules of gas encountered by the light waves are small compared to the
    wavelength of the light. What’s strange about Rayleigh scattering is that not
    all of the light is scattered evenly. Some wavelengths are scattered more. With
    white light, mostly the light of shorter wavelengths (the blue end of the
    visible range) is scattered whilst the longer wavelengths (the red end) are
    mostly uneffected. This means the blue light is scattered more than the red.

    But violet light has the shortest wavelength so why isn’t the sky violet? Well
    it’s true that the violet light is scattered more than the blue light, but our
    eyes aren’t so good at picking up violet light. This means we see the sky as
    being blue even though there is some violet light there too.

    The above information was taken from these sources:

    (http://www.sciencenet.org.uk/database/Physics/Original/p00125d.html)
    and,
    (http://groups.google.com/groups?q=why+is+sky+blue%
    3F&hl=en&selm=33C461D4.24E0B9%40flash.net&rnum=9)


  • Whoo hoo! Almost first post!

    Couldn't resist.. SORRY!


  • Ah, finally found it!


  • Yes, Freddy ... But that was Birdie-GA, and this is Birdie zonder GA.

    Well spotted all the smae!


  • I'd think that if anyone would know why the sky is blue, a birdie would know.


  • shocking I know, but I couldn't stop myself from posting a comment to the ID2 question - my personal stake for perpetuity...!