Why is the sky and sea blue?

Answer 1

1. Outer space contains virtually no gas/dust to scatter light.

Outer space is black.

2. The sky is blue because that's the colour of air (mostly nitrogen), which is not totally colourless. You can see this effect looking at distant (10 km-plus) mountains. They have a blue tinge (caused by the intervening air between you and the mountains) known as atmospheric perspective.

3. If the sky's colour was due to reflection from the oceans, then it would be white above Antarctica, which is snowy white.

4. If the ocean was blue because it reflects the sky, why does it still look blue-ish when under a totally clouded-over sky?

5. Why blue? Light scattering by the atmosphere (Rayleigh scattering) has most effect on the most energetic light. The most energetic light is that with the highest frequency/shortest wavelength.

6. So, while all light is scattered, blue light is scattered the most, so the atmosphere "captures" more of the blue light, letting more of the red light through, and the atmosphere is coloured blue by that "captured" light.

7. If there were *no* selective scattering, and all wavelengths were scattered *equally*, the sky would appear white.

Answer 2

1. Outer space contains virtually no gas/dust to scatter light.

Outer space is black.

2. The sky is blue because that's the colour of air (mostly nitrogen), which is not totally colourless. You can see this effect looking at distant (10 km-plus) mountains. They have a blue tinge (caused by the intervening air between you and the mountains) known as atmospheric perspective.

3. If the sky's colour was due to reflection from the oceans, then it would be white above Antarctica, which is snowy white.

4. If the ocean was blue because it reflects the sky, why does it still look blue-ish when under a totally clouded-over sky?

5. Why blue? Light scattering by the atmosphere (Rayleigh scattering) has most effect on the most energetic light. The most energetic light is that with the highest frequency/shortest wavelength.

6. So, while all light is scattered, blue light is scattered the most, so the atmosphere "captures" more of the blue light, letting more of the red light through, and the atmosphere is coloured blue by that "captured" light.

7. If there were *no* selective scattering, and all wavelengths were scattered *equally*, the sky would appear white.

Answer 3

being proudly christian , The Bible tells us that when god created the earth , everything was water . he seperated it and half went to the sky . this makes much sense becaues look at the sky some times , you will notice that not every inch of the sky has clouds , am i right ? same thing goes when it is raining , but what scientists fail to realize is , where is the rain coming from in the area without clouds ? what other religion succeeds in explaining the work of our god ? no ones , exactly . christian or not there are (all but ) some things that only the holy bible can explain to you that only a passage to you and god will give you the guidence you need to his arms . if your christian , thank him . if your not , join him .

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