Why do I look up at the sky?
Maybe because the stars are all still there during the day. We just can’t see them. We only notice their glow at night when there is less light.
But during the day, all we see is blue.
Do you ever wonder why that sky is blue?
It’s a common misconception that the sky is blue because it reflects the blue of the seas and oceans.
But truly, it is all about the light and how it refracts.
It’s because of the Earth’s atmosphere and a process known as “scattering” that causes our skies to be blue.
Light causes color everywhere. It is why my shirt looks green and why your car looks red.
But back to the sky. As white light passes through our atmosphere, tiny air molecules cause it to “scatter.” It is also known as Rayleigh scattering.
Here’s how it goes. Scattering increases as the wavelength of light decreases. The shorter the wavelength, the more color we see of that wavelength.
And of the visible colors in our spectrum, blue light has the shortest wavelengths. Red light has the longest.
So then. Blue light is scattered more than all the other colors, which is why the sky appears to be blue during the day.
But in the morning and at night, we sometimes see an orange or red sky. The reason being? The Sun is low in the sky at these times. That means that the light has to travel further through the Earth’s atmosphere. So the long wavelengths of red are the ones we see.
All of this was first figured out by John William Strutt, a physicist from England. He was also known as the Third Baron Raleigh. (1841 – 1919) Hence Raleigh Scattering.
This whole subject of light and colors is an entire science.
As such, throughout time, people have wondered about the nature of light.
By 300 BC, Greek scholars had begun to study and contemplate light. They came up with all sorts of theories about color and light. But those crazy guys! They were spitballing. Most of those theories turned out to be wrong.
It would take a long time until light and its composition of wavelengths would be understood. Roger Bacon, an English philosopher from the 13th century, often supposed that the colors of a rainbow are due to the reflection and refraction of sunlight through individual raindrops. But he couldn’t prove it.
It took Isaac Newton to figure things out. Newton’s prism experiments were extensive. This, in 1665. I won’t hash out all the details, but he eventually mapped things out for us in the way of ROYGBIV. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. And their wavelengths, longest red to shortest violet.
So the sky is blue. Sort of. The ocean, same, same. Sort of. It is all bouncing light. My yellow shirt (I changed clothes since I started writing this) and on and on.
Happy light. Be light. We are seen by the light.
May it all light up your life, lightly.
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There are darknesses in life and there are lights, and you are one of the lights, the light of all lights.
― Bram Stoker, Dracula
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Our greatest human adventure is the evolution of consciousness. We are in this life to enlarge the soul, liberate the spirit, and light up the brain.
— Tom Robbins
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To love beauty is to see light.
— Victor Hugo
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The sky is blue. But not you.
