Why is the Sun Yellow and the Sky Blue?
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The sky is not blue – it’s mostly transparent air which is, at best, the color of whateverlight it scatters. Sure, it does scatter blue light more than red light; in fact, the higherthe frequency of light, the more it gets scattered by the atmosphere, so ultraviolet scattersmore than blue, which scatters more than green, more than yellow, more than red, more thaninfrared – but still, only a tiny bit of light scatters while most of it goes straightthrough, which is, you know, how the sun can light up the ground, why we can see the moonand stars, etc.The sun itself actually emits a wide range of frequencies of light, and our human eyesperceive this particular combination as "white” or neutral in color. The vast majority ofthe sky appears blueish bec...
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The sky is not blue – it’s mostly transparent air which is, at best, the color of whateverlight it scatters. Sure, it does scatter blue light more than red light; in fact, the higherthe frequency of light, the more it gets scattered by the atmosphere, so ultraviolet scattersmore than blue, which scatters more than green, more than yellow, more than red, more thaninfrared – but still, only a tiny bit of light scatters while most of it goes straightthrough, which is, you know, how the sun can light up the ground, why we can see the moonand stars, etc.The sun itself actually emits a wide range of frequencies of light, and our human eyesperceive this particular combination as "white” or neutral in color. The vast majority ofthe sky appears blueish bec...
