“Emancipate the Rainbow”
Color
is the part of light that we can see. The
range of visible light waves goes from red to violet (note: violet and purple are different names
for the same color that we see). Light waves that we can't see are infra-red and ultra-violet.
The rainbow is a reflection of the
sun’s light waves bouncing off of raindrops.
Light travels in waves. The light's wavelength determines its color. Short wavelength light, for example, appears blue, and long wavelength light appears red.
When light strikes particles that are larger than its wavelength, the light's path may be altered. When light strikes particles that are smaller than its wavelength, the light continues to travel unaffected.
The atmosphere contains many particles and gases, mainly nitrogen and oxygen.
Sunlight is composed of light of many different wavelengths. Longer wavelength light appears red, orange, and yellow, while shorter wavelength light appears blue, indigo and violet. The gas molecules in the atmosphere scatter, in all directions, shorter wavelength light (e.g., blue). The longer wavelength light (e.g., red) is largely unaffected by the atmosphere. As a result, when you look at the sky, you see the blue portion of the sun's light being scattered by the atmosphere. If you were to look at the sky while standing on the moon, you would see a very bright star surrounded by complete darkness. This is because the moon has no atmosphere and so sunlight is not scattered.
This blog is copyrighted by Dr. Daryle Crew Roboch. (c) Daryle Crew
Roboch 2013 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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