• Question: Why is the sky blue?

    Asked by Lark to Rob, Stefan, Anna, George, Jodi on 12 Nov 2014. This question was also asked by Anna :D, Najibah :).
    • Photo: Stefan Lines

      Stefan Lines answered on 12 Nov 2014:

      When light reaches us from the Sun, it arrives as many different colours; red, green, yellow, blue etc… (all disguised as a whitish light). You might have seen an experiment where a white light, with no obvious colour passes through a prism and splits into a rainbow of colours.

      A similar thing happens in our atmosphere. The white light gets ‘scattered’ by molecules, like gases, in the atmosphere. Blue and Violet light gets scattered more than the other colours, so it appears everywhere. But we don’t see Violet so much because a) theres less violet light from the sun and b) our eyes don’t see violet so well.

      Hope that helps!

    • Photo: Jodi Schneider

      Jodi Schneider answered on 13 Nov 2014:

      Great answer from Stefan! If you want some pictures, check out NASA:
      http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/blue-sky/en/

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