Get a free audiobook at http://www.audible.com/minutephysics Why isn't the sky violet? MinutePhysics is on Google+ - http://bit.ly/qzEwc6 And facebook - http://facebook.com/minutephysics...
========== If you know the explanation for why the sky's
blue, you've heard that sunlight is whitelight composed of many frequencies and that
higher frequency, bluer, light scatters inthe air more than lower frequency, redder,
light. So, you might ask "why isn't the skyviolet, since violet is an even higher frequency
than blue?". First off, ultraviolet lightand x-rays are also higher frequency than
blue, and that doesn't mean the sky is thecolor of x-rays… Both because we can't see
them and also because the sun doesn't makevery many of them and then the atmosphere
blocks them all - which is probably why wedidn't evolve to be able to see them. And
secondly, the color violet in the rainbowis the "roses...