Not many can resist admiring a picturesque blue sky, yet few understand why its hue comes about. No, it doesn’t come from oxygen levels in the atmosphere or because sunlight emits blue rays; there’s another explanation. Light that reaches Earth’s atmosphere is scattered by gases and particles in the air, with blue wavelength light being…
On Thursday evening, parts of Queens were illuminated in an electric blue glow that caused quite the stir on social media, leading many people to speculate whether aliens were visiting. A spokesperson from Con Edison assured us it was more mundane. The mysterious blue light emanating from an electrical fire in a transformer substation near…
Everyone appreciates a lovely blue sky on a bright day, yet many savvy individuals have puzzled over why it should be that color. Rayleigh scattering, which occurs when light hits gases and particles in the atmosphere, accounts for this phenomenon. Light with shorter wavelengths such as blue is scattered more readily than other colors. Rayleigh…
Blue has long been thought of as making the sky appear clear and blue, but this effect is actually caused by gases and particles in our atmosphere. They scatter shorter wavelengths such as blue light more readily than their redder counterparts, producing that hue. Many people believe the ocean’s hue reflects the sky, but in…
When kids ask the age-old question “why is the sky blue,” try this simple science experiment that draws upon John Tyndall’s work from Ireland in the 1860s. Tyndall used a clear tube and smoke particles to demonstrate how blue light scatters more than other colors; this phenomenon explains why our atmosphere gives the sky its…
Numerous readers have asked why the sky is blue; contrary to popular belief, it’s not because water reflects it, but due to air molecules. As sunlight passes through the atmosphere it gets scattered by oxygen and nitrogen molecules, creating a condition in which shorter wavelengths (blues) are scattered more than longer wavelengths (reds), creating what…
Sky blue is an ideal hue to help create an inviting space where you can unwind after an exhausting day. This versatile hue works well with numerous hues for an unpretentious yet modern aesthetic. Light traveling through Earth’s atmosphere comes into contact with gas molecules that scatter shorter wavelengths of blue and violet light more…
No one can resist a beautiful day with blue skies! These lovely views result from sunlight passing through Earth’s atmosphere and being scattered by oxygen and nitrogen molecules present therein, particularly those with shorter wavelengths, like blue. As light with shorter wavelengths like blue has more chance to get scattered than other colors due to…
At noontime, most of the light reaching our eyes appears blue due to gases in our atmosphere scattering it more widely than violet and red hues do. Reason being, air molecules are smaller than the wavelengths of sunlight and shorter wavelengths scatter more strongly compared to longer ones – known as Rayleigh scattering effect. The…
