what is scattering of light?
Answers
Scattering of light is the phenomenon in which light rays get deviated from its straight path on striking an obstacle like dust or gas molecules, water vapours etc. Scattering of light gives rise to many spectacular phenomena such as Tyndall effect and the “red hues of sunrise and sunset”.
Answer:
Scattering of light
Light can be examined entirely from its source. When light passes from one medium to any other medium say air, a glass of water then a part of the light is absorbed by particles of the medium preceded by its subsequent radiation in a particular direction. This phenomenon is termed as a scattering of light. The intensity of scattered light depends on the size of the particles and the wavelength of the light.
Shorter wavelength and high frequency scatter more due to the waviness of the line and its intersection with a particle. The wavier the line, the more are the chances of it intersecting with a particle. On the other hand, longer wavelengths have low frequency, and they are straighter and chances of colliding with the particle are less so the chances are less.
The bending of multicoloured light can be seen in the afternoon due to the refraction and total internal reflection of light. The wavelength of the sunlight forms different colours in different directions. Rayleigh scattering theory is reasoned for the red colour of the sun in the morning and blue colour of the sky.
Let p be considered as the probability of scattering and λ is the wavelength of radiation, then it is given as:
P⋉1λ4
The probability for scattering will give a high rise for shorter wavelength and it is inversely proportional to the fourth power of the wavelength of radiation.