• Question: why is the sky blue

    Asked by llogk to Ahmed, Francesca, George, James, Nitheen on 13 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: James Sullivan

      James Sullivan answered on 13 Nov 2014:

      Because when the white light splits into the rainbow in the upper atmosphere all the other colours are deflected away and the blue is deflected to where we can see it.

      Nice one Nitheen, I should add Tyndall was an Irish scientist.
      A research centre in Cork is named after him.

    • Photo: Nitheen Kaperi

      Nitheen Kaperi answered on 13 Nov 2014:

      Hi IIogk,

      The sky is not blue. The sky diffracts more of blue wavelength than the other visible colors.
      This is called the Tyndall effect. ( Tyndall effect is the phenomenon in which light is scattered by particles of matter in its path).

    • Photo: Francesca Paradisi

      Francesca Paradisi answered on 13 Nov 2014:

      Answered brilliantly by my fellow scientists!

    • Photo: Ahmed Osman

      Ahmed Osman answered on 17 Nov 2014:

      Hi llogk
      thanks for this fabulous question
      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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