Why is the sky blue?

[terencem2]

Why is the sky blue, is it really a reflection of the sea??? If so why when your in the middle of a vast land space, such as Russia or Africa, is it stil blue???

[nightmare]

keeping it simple,
light from the Sun is scattered by the molecules making up air.
The degree of scattering is very strongly dependent on the wavelength of the light - short wavelength (blue) light is scattered much more than longer wavelength (red) light.
Hence, the sky appears blue.

[chakka35]

Nothing to do with the sea. Light from the sun is scattered by the dust, pollen, etc. in the atmosphere. Blue light, because of its shorter wavelength, is scattered more than the other colours, causing the whole of the sky to look blue. Other colours travel to us more directly, which is why the sun itself looks white - or slightly yellow because some of the direct blue is missing through scattering.
At sunrise and sunset, because the sun is so low on the horizon, the light comes to us through a far thicker chunk of atmosphere. This absorbs the blue entirely and only the red can get through.

[chakka35]

Sorry, nightmare, you got in while I was still composing my words of wisdom!.

[terencem2]

Thank you to you both. Now I have another office argument.

What is the colour of water, specifically sea water. The argument is it is blue. So why is then green sometimes (not just because of algae.

If you collect sea water in your hands it's clear. People in the office are trying to convince me, you have to have a vast quantity of if for it to be blue. I think this is just rubbish.

Can you shed any light on the subject??? (Pardon the inference to previous posts to make such a pun).

Regards

Terry

[mibn2cweus]

Clean water in sufficient quantities has an aqua colour. The color of water

here's why