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Asked by 377mecm24 to Shuo, Martin, Leonie, Lauren, Ciorsdaidh, Alan on 5 Mar 2018.
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Ciorsdaidh Watts answered on 5 Mar 2018:
This is a great question! Lots of scientists asked this same question. Light from the sun (although it looks white) is made up of a spectrum of colours (visible and invisible) as seen in a rainbow or when light is passed through a prism. Different colours of light have different wavelengths. Just like any waves, light waves can be scattered by coming in contact with molecules. In the case of sunlight, the different colours (and their different wavelengths) are scattered when they enter the Earth’s atmosphere by the molecules in the air. Blue light have a short wavelength and is therefore scattered more efficiently than other colours. This is why we generally see the sky as blue.
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Martin McCoustra answered on 5 Mar 2018:
This is due to light scattering. Blue light has a shorter wavelength than red and scattered more efficiently. So the sky appears! What causes the scattering… the molecules and dust in the atmosphere. This also explains why the sky appears red as the Sun sets. As the Sun approaches the horizon, light from the Sun has to pass through more atmosphere. All the blue light is scattered out before the light get to our eyes and we see only red.
Have a look at the Dalkeith High School experiment here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fg0Gh7nXs2g&index=2&t=0s&list=PLYmkj73NeZvIRUIg2wrXKbqIKgdCjycbF.
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Lauren Webster answered on 5 Mar 2018:
Agree with the other two scientists 🙂 White light is made up off all the colours. Each colour is distinguished by their wavelengths, each colour therefore has their own wavelength. Each colour can be scattered in all different directions from things that are present in the air. So lets back to the sun…Sun light is made up of blue and red light. Blue light has a short wavelength compared with red. When the sun is high in the sky, light enters out atmosphere but blue light (as it has a short wavelength) gets scattered first and disperses into the air. Our eyes are more sensitive to this so we see blue…the sky is blue.
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