Re: Howlers

In article <1f6u9y7l6sttg$.1qfnuhlqfro6o.dlg@xxxxxxxxxx>,
Ric Locke <warlocke@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Thu, 12 Apr 2007 02:55:00 GMT+1, Tina Hall wrote:
I agree with most if not all, but I really don't know why the sky should
be blue. :)

Not quite correct, but close enough: as light travels through a transparent
substance it is scattered, that is, it bounces off the individual molecules
and gets sent in random directions. Blue light has more energy than the
other colors, so it doesn't get deflected as much. Therefore the light that
makes it all the way through is mostly blue.

Er, other way around. Blue light is scattered more; the other colors have a
stronger tendency to head straight from the sun to the ground. When you
look at some bit of (daytime, non-cloudy) sky which isn't the Sun, the light
you see can't have taken a straight line path from the Sun to your eye.
Therefore it's mostly blue. At sunrise/sunset, the light has to travel
through more air, which makes the blue more likely to be scattered out
entirely, leaving behind red.

--
Justin Fang (justinf@xxxxxxxxx)
.

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