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blue colour of the sky

Sunlight reaches the Earth's atmosphere and is dispersed everywhere by all gases and particles in the atmosphere.Blue light scatters more than other colors because it travels like short, small waves. That is why we see the blue sky most of the time. Here we will study about why the sky appears blue and the properties of white light.

When white light falls on the prism surface, light is separated from all its colours. A prism is a special crystal formation. Like the force of the ocean, the light energy travels in waves, too.

Blue light waves are shorter than red light waves therefore they scatter the most And as the red light waves are shorter hence it scatters less therefore the colour of the sky appears to be blue because the red colour has the shortest wavelength and it does not scatter as much as blue light.

Blue Colour of Sky

The process by which microscopic particles (such as ice crystals, dust, air particulates, cosmic dust, and blood cells) scatter light, generating optical phenomena such as the blue hue of the sky and halos, is known as light scattering by particles.

The blue sky, the colour of the deep ocean and the redness of the sun at sunrise or sunset are just some of the examples of everyday life that results from the dispersion.

Fine particles of the air in the atmosphere are smaller than the length of visible light. Therefore, they are more effective in dispersing short wavelengths in the blue end than in long wavelengths in the red end.

Red light has a greater wavelength than blue light. Thus, when sunlight passes through the atmosphere, fine-grained particles in the air scatter blue (shorter wavelengths) much stronger than red. A bright blue light enters our eyes.

The sky would look dark. Similarly, the skies appear black to passengers flying at very high altitudes, as the dispersion is less effective at such altitudes.

The interaction of sunlight with matter can lead to three types of behaviour of the waves: absorption, transmission, and reflection or mirroring. Atmosphere is a gas-filled ocean that contains a wide variety of particles; the two most common types of matter in the atmosphere are gaseous nitrogen and oxygen. These particles are very effective in transmitting high frequency and short wavelength components of the light spectrum. 

This process of dispersion involves the scattering of light atoms followed by the re-emission of light waves in various locations. The amount of scattering that occurs depends on the amount of light. Atmospheric nitrogen and oxygen diffuse violet light easily, followed by blue light, green light, etc. So as white light from the sun passes through our atmosphere the high frequencies are propagated by atmospheric particles while low waves are more likely to pass through space without significant changes in their direction. 

This scattering of the lights shown in the sky is that light which comes under the spectrum of visible light and as compared to violet blue is more visible and is sensitive to our eyes hence the sky appears blue to us.

Conclusion

Here we came to know why the colour of sky is blue. Now the colour of the sky is due to the light scattering material. The white light of colour before it reaches the earth disperses in its 7 parts VIBGYOR

Air molecules are smaller than the wavelength of visible light. They emit short-wave light that can be more effective than long. Since red light has a wavelength of about 1.8 times blue light. Thus, when sunlight passes through the atmosphere, particles emit blue light over red and thus the blue light reaches our eyes.

The blue colour is due to the diffusion of sunlight by molecules present in the atmosphere.

Air molecules have a smaller size than they come in terms of visible light. These molecules absorb the sunlight and release it, as the sun’s rays pass through the atmosphere.

The blue light of the short wavelength is much more dispersed than the red light of the long wavelength. This scattering light contains blue light for the most part and that enters our eyes. That is why the sky seems blue to our eyes.