• Question: why is the sky blue?

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      • Royal Society of Chemistry: Find out more about:
      Asked by Shona to Alex, Anaïs, Peter, Sarwat, Shreesha on 10 Mar 2015. This question was also asked by amy rodger.
      • Photo: Anaïs Pujol

        Anaïs Pujol answered on 10 Mar 2015:

        Hi Shona, The particules of the sky will scatter only blue light from the sun more than they scatter red light. At the sunset as all the blue light were scattered away you will see only orange and red.

      • Photo: Sarwat Iqbal

        Sarwat Iqbal answered on 11 Mar 2015:

        When sunlight reaches Earth’s atmosphere it gets scattered in all directions by the gases and particles in the air (remember light passing through prism). Blue is scattered more than other colors because it travels as shorter, smaller waves. This is why we see a blue sky most of the time.

      • Photo: Peter Maskell

        Peter Maskell answered on 13 Mar 2015:

        see above

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