From: Sidney Keith (sidkeith@hotmail.com)
Date: Sun Mar 19 2000 - 21:32:08 PST
Message-ID: <20000320053208.57532.qmail@hotmail.com> From: "Sidney Keith" <sidkeith@hotmail.com> Subject: Blue Skies Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2000 21:32:08 PST
Paul's explanation for why the sky is blue sounds right, but I remember
reading another explanation by an author who seemed very confident (it might
have been James Trefil). He said it was really a matter of statistics.
Light is scattered in the sky predominantly by groups of molecules, not
single atoms or molecules. A small number of molecules in the right
configuration scatters blue light, since the group's small size makes it
scatter a shorter wavelength, while a larger group scatters red light whose
wavelength is longer. Statistically the smaller group of molecules is more
common than the larger group, since it contains less molecules which have to
fall by chance into the right places, so the sky scatters more blue light
than red.
Has anyone heard of this alternate explanation, and does it have any merit?
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