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Article #1334Re: Blue Sky
From: John C. Baez
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 14:57
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 14:57
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In article <BrrMJB.Brv@acsu.buffalo.edu> mjb@acsu.buffalo.edu (Matthew J. Bernhardt) writes: >andrew@rentec.com (Andrew Mullhaupt) writes: > >>Why is the sky blue? > > I'll bite. The composition of the Earth's atmosphere (four fifths >nitrogen, one fifth oxygen) is such that incoming light is refracted to make >the sky appear blue. As far as I know, refraction has nothing to do with it. Rather, blue light is scattered. In physics I recall learning how a free charged particle is more apt to scatter light of higher frequencies, and this was claimed to be the explanation for why the sky is blue. Later I vaguely recall someone saying that this was a misleadingly oversimplified account. If anyone REALLY knows this stuff I'd be glad to hear it. I've always wondered why there are so few blue animals. I am also reminded of George Carlin's routine beginning "There is no blue food!"
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Newsgroups: sci.physics Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!galois!riesz!jbaez From: jbaez@riesz.mit.edu (John C. Baez) Subject: Re: Blue Sky Message-ID: <1992Jul22.145723.24741@galois.mit.edu> Sender: news@galois.mit.edu Nntp-Posting-Host: riesz Organization: MIT Department of Mathematics, Cambridge, MA References: <1099@kepler1.rentec.com> <BrrMJB.Brv@acsu.buffalo.edu> Date: Wed, 22 Jul 92 14:57:23 GMT Lines: 19