Why is the sky blue?????? I need to know!?

Light from the Sun (white light) is made up of many colours - red, green, blue,

and so on. Each of these colors has a different wavelength and frequency. When

light reaches the atmosphere it hits gas molecules which scatter the light in

all directions. This scattering is called Rayleigh scattering after Lord

Rayleigh who worked out the mathematical equations to describe it.

So how does Rayleigh scattering work? Rayleigh scattering only happens when the

molecules of gas encountered by the light waves are small compared to the

wavelength of the light. What’s strange about Rayleigh scattering is that not

all of the light is scattered evenly. Some wavelengths are scattered more. With

white light, mostly the light of shorter wavelengths (the blue end of the

visible range) is scattered whilst the longer wavelengths (the red end) are

mostly uneffected. This means the blue light is scattered more than the red.

But violet light has the shortest wavelength so why isn’t the sky violet? Well

it’s true that the violet light is scattered more than the blue light, but our

eyes aren’t so good at picking up violet light. This means we see the sky as

being blue even though there is some violet light there too.

According to Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffuse_sky_radiation... here's a good explanation of why the sky is blue:

"The sunlit sky appears blue because air scatters short-wavelength light more than longer wavelengths. Since blue light is at the short wavelength end of the visible spectrum, it is more strongly scattered in the atmosphere than long wavelength red light. The result is that the human eye perceives blue when looking toward parts of the sky other than the sun. Near sunrise and sunset, most of the light we see comes in nearly tangent to the Earth's surface, so that the light's path through the atmosphere is so long that much of the blue and even green light is scattered out, leaving the sun rays and the clouds it illuminates red. Therefore, when looking at the sunset and sunrise, you will see the color red more than any of the other colors."

There are some other great websites that also explain why the sky appears blue. Just click on:

http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/sky_blue.html

http://www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/General/...

http://science.howstuffworks.com/sky.htm

or do a web search for "why sky is blue" and similar words for additional resources online.

I hope this is helpful! All the best!

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During the day, the sunlight enters the atmosphere & is split into its different wavelengths - the so-called ROY G BIV colors. the blue wavelength scatters the most - making the sky appear blue!

Later in the day, during sunset, the sky appears orange-red because those wavelengths scatter more with the lower angle of the sun.

It's because the sky filters blue light. It is NOT because the sky is reflecting the ocean. That is a common misconception.

because the sun is reflecting light off the ocean.. which makes the sky appear blue.

White light is made up of all the colours in the spectrum, and its just refracting at a certain wavelength that we call 'blue'

the same reason that water is blue. water obsorbs every color and reflects blue off of it. this blue from the water makes the sky blue as well

because air particles reflect blue light

It is the reflection off the ocean.

the first guy is right.Air particles reflect blue .