Why the sky is blue

The blue color of the sky is due to Rayleigh scattering. As light moves through the
atmosphere, most of the longer wavelengths pass straight through. Little of the red,
orange and yellow light is affected by the air.

However, much of the shorter wavelength light is absorbed by the gas molecules. The
absorbed blue light is then radiated in different directions. It gets scattered all around
the sky. Whichever direction you look, some of this scattered blue light reaches you.
Since you see the blue light from everywhere overhead, the sky looks blue.

As you look closer to the horizon, the sky appears much paler in color. To reach you,
the scattered blue light must pass through more air. Some of it gets scattered away
again in other directions. Less blue light reaches your eyes. The color of the sky near
the horizon appears paler or white.

Why Are Sunsets Red?

As the sun begins to set, the light must travel farther through the atmosphere before it
gets to you. More of the light is reflected and scattered.
As less reaches you directly, the sun appears less bright. The color of the sun itself
appears to change, first to orange and then to red. This is because even more of the
short wavelength blues and greens are now scattered. Only the longer wavelengths are
left in the direct beam that reaches your eyes.

The sky around the setting sun may take on many colors. The most spectacular shows
occur when the air contains many small particles of dust or water. These particles
reflect light in all directions. Then, as some of the light heads towards you, different
amounts of the shorter wavelength colors are scattered out. You see the longer
wavelengths, and the sky appears red, pink or orange.

Why do bubbles have color?

Similar to the way we

perceive the colors in a
rainbow or an oil slick,
we see the colors in a
bubble through the
reflection and the
refraction of light waves
off the inner and outer
surfaces of the bubble
wall. You can't color a
bubble since its wall is
only a few millionths of
an inch thick. A bubble
reflects color from its
surroundings.
 When a light wave hits the surface of a bubble, part of the light is reflected back to a
viewer's eye from the outer surface and part of the light is reflected from the inner surface
which is a few millionths of an inch further. As the two waves of light travel back, they
interfere with one another causing what we know as color. When the waves reinforce each
other, the color is more intense. When the wave get close to canceling each other out,
there is almost no color. As a bubble wall gets thinner, either from a weak solution or
because gravity has pulled its chemical content to the bottom, the distance between the
inner surface and the outer surface of the bubble becomes less and less until the two
reflected waves of light start to coincide and cancel each other out. The result is that the
bubble loses its color and can become nearly invisible.

7.

Structural colors are created by an optical effect (such as interference, refraction, or diffraction) rather

than by a pigment. They arise from the arrangement of physical structures interacting with light to

produce a particular color.

Structural color is responsible for the colors of the feathers of many birds (including the blue jay,

hummingbirds and pheasants), as well as certain butterfly wings and beetle shells. Variations in the

spacing of the pattern often gives rise to an iridescent effect, as seen in peacock feathers, soap bubbles,

films of oil, and mother-of-pearl, because the reflected color depends upon the angle of view.

5.

Cloud color is due to Mie Scattering

-This means that clouds scatter all wavelengths of light equally. All wavelengths of light = white color

4.

the sun emits visible light of all colours, which combine to give white light.

Hence, all things being equal, the light coming out from a breaking wave is brighter than that from water
(which is just a large collection of water ), and appears white under the sun.

10

Black is not a color; a black object absorbs all the colors of the visible spectrum and reflects none of
them to the eyes.