What is meant by scattering of light ?Use this phenomenon to explain why the clear sky appears blue or the sun appers reddish at sunrise?
Answers
The phenomenon in which a part of the light incident on a particle is redirected in different directions is called the scattering of light.
At the time of sunrise and sunset, when the Sun is near the horizon, sunlight travels a greater distance through the atmosphere to reach us. During this, most of the shorter wavelengths present in it are scattered away from our line of sight by the molecules of air and other fine particles in the atmosphere. So, light reaching us directly from the rising or setting Sun consists mainly of the longer wavelength red colour because of which the Sun appears red.
Answer:
Scattering of light is the phenomenon in which a beam of light is redirected in different directions on interacting with particles present in the medium.
The sky appears blue because the fine particles in the atmosphere scatter blue light the most among all the components of white light.
During sunrise/sunset when the sun is near the horizon, the sunlight has to travel a large distance and blue light is scattered away. Since red light has the longest wavelength it is able to travel long distance which is why the sun appears reddish at sunrise.