On Friday, May 17, 2019, 10:55:25 AM PDT, \0xDynamite
<[email protected]> wrote:
>I think you answered part of my question, which was partly didactic to
force science to get more rigor in its explanation. I think I will
have to content myself with this because I know that rainbows and the
sky being blue will NEVER be explainable by science.
Mark
No, the reason the sky is blue was explained long ago. It's called "Rayleigh
scattering".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayleigh_scattering
Rayleigh scattering (pronounced /ˈreɪli/ RAY-lee), named after the
nineteenth-century British physicist Lord Rayleigh (John William Strutt),[1] is
the predominantly elastic scattering of light or other electromagnetic
radiation by particles much smaller than the wavelength of the radiation.
Rayleigh scattering does not change the state of material and is, hence, a
parametric process. The particles may be individual atoms or molecules. It can
occur when light travels through transparent solids and liquids, and is most
prominently seen in gases. Rayleigh scattering results from the electric
polarizability of the particles. The oscillating electric field of a light wave
acts on the charges within a particle, causing them to move at the same
frequency. The particle therefore becomes a small radiating dipole whose
radiation we see as scattered light. This radiation is an integral part of the
photon and no excitation or deexcitation occurs.
[end of quote]
However, that explaination does not include a reference to what my
understanding of Rayleigh scattering entails. Considered on the scale of the
wavelength of the light involved, the density of air varies statistically.
Blue is a shorter wavelenth than red, so statistically that variation in air
density is greater. So, blue is scattered more than red. Blue sky means that
more blue is scattered.
Jim Bell
