Question

State the factors on which the colour of the scattered light depends. Explain why the sky appears blue.

Answer 1

The colour of the scattered light depends on the size of scattering particles. Usually, the fine particles scatter light mainly of shorter wavelength while large particles scatter light of longer wavelength.

The sunlight that reaches the earth’s atmosphere is scattered in all directions by the gases and dust particles present in the atmosphere. The blue colour is scattered more and hence the sky appears blue. The reason for more scattering of blue colour is that the wavelength of the blue light is shorter than the other light. So blue light is scattered in all directions by the tiny molecules of air in Earth’s atmosphere. This is the reason sky appears blue.