I keep seeing the reason why sky is blue that blue scatters more is because blue light has less or shorter wavelength than the other colors but why does it need to be shorter wavelength for it to scatter more, what does it have to do with scattering light?
In: Chemistry
It is wavelength closer to the size of the particle that scatters more. O and N atoms are around 0.3 nm in diameter and double that and we get 0.6 nm as the width of O2 and N2 in the atmosphere. Compare that to visible light with wavelengths of 380 nm (blue) to 750 nm (red)
If you have a lot of larger particles in the air larger than the wavelength of air sooth from a forest fire, sand from storms in deserts etc it is red that is closer in wavelength compared to blue. You can then get sky that look like [https://assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/09/09/3db84590-7c45-413e-bd00-dbae9bc4eb7c/thumbnail/620×413/303c7cd232b6010c5422a57348f53726/2020-09-09t172116z-691218995-rc25vi9tjkgp-rtrmadp-3-usa-wildfires-oregon.jpg?v=83093a0dd27502f0a52cd68b1c5b8b6e](https://assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/09/09/3db84590-7c45-413e-bd00-dbae9bc4eb7c/thumbnail/620×413/303c7cd232b6010c5422a57348f53726/2020-09-09t172116z-691218995-rc25vi9tjkgp-rtrmadp-3-usa-wildfires-oregon.jpg?v=83093a0dd27502f0a52cd68b1c5b8b6e)
We call scattering with particles larger than the wavelength for Mie scattering, it particles are smaller we call it Rayleigh scattering.
An example of Rayleigh scattering is when light passes through our atmosphere it polarizes (interacts with) oxygen and nitrogen molecules.
This polarization causes the light to scatter (go everywhere). The more energy that the light has, the more strongly it polarizes the oxygen and nitrogen molecules which means that it scatters more.
The shorter the wavelength of the light the more energy it has. This means that blue light (short wavelength, high energy) scatters more than red light (long wavelength, low energy). Our eyes then see the scattered blue light. Thus, our sky looks blue.
TLDR: Shorter wavelength light has more energy which means that it scatters more in our atmosphere due to Rayleigh scattering.
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