• Question: why is the sky blue ?

    Asked by olivia :) to Tonia, Sam, Emily, Ejay, Edgars, Charnett on 13 Jun 2019.
    • Photo: Emily McNee

      Emily McNee answered on 13 Jun 2019:


      Not sure sorry

    • Photo: Tonia Tzemanaki

      Tonia Tzemanaki answered on 13 Jun 2019:


      something to do with the different gases in the atmosphere. don’t know exactly, sorry!

    • Photo: Charnett Chau

      Charnett Chau answered on 13 Jun 2019:


      Something to do with the lower wavelengths of light are reflected of molecules better in the atmosphere. What we see is actually a mixture of blue and purple light! Don’t quote me though!

    • Photo: Sam Gaughan

      Sam Gaughan answered on 14 Jun 2019:


      The Earth’s atmosphere acts a bit like a prism for incoming white light, but the mixture of molecules in air scatters blue light much more than the other colours, so that’s what comes down and hits our eyes, making us see it as blue.

      This also explains the orange/red colour you get at sunrise/sunset. The low angle that the sun is at relative to you means that the blue light has already been scattered out of the light rays reaching your eyes by the atmosphere between you and the sun, and we perceive that as red or orange. The light is actually a mix of everything but blue and violet light, but we see that as red.

    • Photo: Ejay Nsugbe

      Ejay Nsugbe answered on 14 Jun 2019:


      I think Sam hits the nail on the head here.

    • Photo: Edgars Kelmers

      Edgars Kelmers answered on 14 Jun 2019:


      Agree to Sam.

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