• Question: If there was no sea to reflect the suns light... What colour would the sky be?

    Asked by Tír Na nÓg to Ahmed, Francesca, George, James, Nitheen on 14 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: James Sullivan

      James Sullivan answered on 14 Nov 2014:

      Hi Niamh,

      You have that the wrong way round. The sea is blue because it reflects the sky. Not the other way around.

      If the sky want blue then the sea would be whatever colour the sky was.

    • Photo: Francesca Paradisi

      Francesca Paradisi answered on 14 Nov 2014:

      Still blue! I think we chatted about this earlier today too 😉

    • Photo: George Dowson

      George Dowson answered on 14 Nov 2014:

      The sky is blue because the blue light from the sun is scattered all over the sky by the atmosphere, so everywhere you look is blue! As the sun gets lower the light’s path through the atmosphere gets longer and reds are scattered too making the sunset colours we all love.

      The oceans are blue because of similar reasons, water absorbs and scatters light in such a way that deep water appears blue. Algae and mud can cause other colourings of course!

    • Photo: Ahmed Osman

      Ahmed Osman answered on 17 Nov 2014:

      Hi Niamh
      I think is the opposite way you have mentioned, The sky is blue because of the way the Earth’s atmosphere scatters light from the sun. 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.
      hope my answer is clear
      thanks
      Ahmed

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