the sky and the ocean

Radicalrad1001 · #1 (**permalink**) 06-10-2008, 07:35 PM

why are they blue

Emerald.Star · #2 (**permalink**) 06-11-2008, 08:02 AM

umm...nobody really knows?

Ainegue · #3 (**permalink**) 06-11-2008, 01:29 PM

The sky isn't actually blue - it just looks blue because air actually has a color. From close up, it's a very small color, so you can't really see the color. But when you're looking wayyyy up there, you're looking at the light from a LOT of air, and then you can see the blue.

I think the ocean is blue for the same reason - water has a color. That's why when you see tap water, it's whitish and transparent. Then when it's in a giant pool, it's blue.

It's like if take a really thin paper, it's almost transparent. But then you layer another... and another... and another peice on top, then you can see the color better. It gets darker, pretty much.

Yeah. I read that in a book

lilytheyellowluver · #4 (**permalink**) 06-11-2008, 01:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ainegue

The sky isn't actually blue - it just looks blue because air actually has a color. From close up, it's a very small color, so you can't really see the color. But when you're looking wayyyy up there, you're looking at the light from a LOT of air, and then you can see the blue.

I think the ocean is blue for the same reason - water has a color. That's why when you see tap water, it's whitish and transparent. Then when it's in a giant pool, it's blue.

It's like if take a really thin paper, it's almost transparent. But then you layer another... and another... and another peice on top, then you can see the color better. It gets darker, pretty much.

Yeah. I read that in a book

omigawsh thats soooooo cool!!! i wouldn't have come up with that!! i probably would have said, "God made it that way" (which he did) or like..."thats like asking why my hair is brown, or .... how Wii's and iPods work.... its a mystery!!!!!" lol
Ainegue, great answer!!

Ainegue · #5 (**permalink**) 06-12-2008, 09:11 AM

Thanks! (:

hershey_sky · #6 (**permalink**) 06-12-2008, 11:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lilytheyellowluver

omigawsh thats soooooo cool!!! i wouldn't have come up with that!! i probably would have said, "God made it that way" (which he did) or like..."thats like asking why my hair is brown, or .... how Wii's and iPods work.... its a mystery!!!!!" lol
Ainegue, great answer!!

thats what i would of said too!

Skyesmom · #7 (**permalink**) 06-12-2008, 04:53 PM

Geek factor coming out here, but here is the "official" answer on why water is blue.

Water owes its intrinsic blueness to selective absorption in the red part of its visible spectrum. The absorbed photons promote transitions to high overtone and combination states of the nuclear motions of the molecule, i.e. to highly excited vibrations. To our knowledge the intrinsic blueness of water is the only example from nature in which color originates from vibrational transitions. Other materials owe their colors to the interaction of visible light with the electrons of the substances. Their colors may originate from resonant interactions between photons and matter such as absorption, emission, and selective reflection or from non-resonant processes such as Rayleigh scattering, interference, diffraction, or refraction, but in each case, the photons interact primarily or exclusively with electrons.

Holly · #8 (**permalink**) 06-12-2008, 05:05 PM

Okay dork lol I will have R get on and explain it so that kids can actually understand it LOL