Why does the sky appear to be blue during the daytime

Q- Why does the sky appear to be blue during the daytime?

Ans: The sky appears to be blue during the day due to a phenomenon of physics known as the scattering of light. Particles that are much smaller in wavelength cause this scattering of light. Sunlight takes about eight minutes to reach the earth’s atmosphere. This sunlight gets scattered after reaching the atmosphere by small particles such as dust particles. After getting diffused, the radiation that reaches the earth’s surface is only about one-third of the total light scattered in this process. The light with the smallest wavelength tends to spread more; hence the blue colour appears more widely as it has a smaller wavelength.

Similarly, due to the position of the earth and the sun at sunrise and sunset, the sun’s rays reach the earth’s atmosphere at very different angles. Hence, most blue light is scattered away before going into the earth’s atmosphere; hence, only red light gets scattered at sunrise and sunset. Therefore, at sunrise and sunset, the sky appears red or orangish-red. Now you know why the sky looks the colour it is in and how the phenomenon of scattering works.

The shorter wavelengths of blue and violet colours get scattered most of the daytime during the daytime. This blue light is scattered more to our eyes than any other colour. Another critical observation is why the sky does not appear to be violet as it should get spread most? The violet light is present in significantly less quantity in the sunlight. Also, blue light is more sensitive to our eyes, and hence we tend to see more of it. So next time anyone says the blue sky is due to the reflection of blue water from the sea, you can explain this in more straightforward terms.