Thursday, December 12, 2013

light:Why is the sky blue?

Why is the sky blue?
 We know that sunlight or white light is made up of different colours, each having a different wavelength. As the light from our Sun shines into the atmosphere, most of the colours are able to reach the Earth's surface uninterrupted.

 However, the Earth's atmosphere is filled with trillions of tiny dust particles, that are too small to be seen with the human eye, and that are the same length as the wavelength of blue light.

 As a result, blue light is scattered, and bounces in every direction until it eventually reaches your eyes. For this reason, no matter what direction you look in the sky, it appears to be blue.

 Though human beings had wondered for centuries why the sky is blue- and had tried to come up with many explanations- the correct explanation was first given by John Tyndall in 1859.

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