Test: Scattering of Light - UPSC

The phenomenon of scattering of light by the colloidal particles is called Tyndall effect. Due to this phenomenon the light rays are visible when light passes through a hole in a room or in a dense forest through the trees.

light is scattered by droplets. This happens inherently because fog is composed of water or ice crystals that remain near the surface of the earth. It can also be known as low-lying cloud which gets influenced by topography, water bodies and wind conditions of a place.

Blue light is scattered in all directions by the tiny Molecules of air in Earth's atmosphere. Blue is scattered more than other colors because it travels as shorter, smaller waves. This is why we see a blue sky most of the time.

The sky will be dark in colour in absence of atmosphere.Due to atmosphere there is trapping and scattering of light.

Because when the light of sun travel a long distance it meets with large amount of particles present in atmosphere. When they crush with small particles they got scattered due to which the blue color which have shorter wavelength, scatters most by which the sky seems blue.

The light having short wavelength can be scattered easily. For example, blue light shorter wavelength so it is scattered more easily.

The danger signals are red because among all other colours, red colour is scattered the least by smoke or fog. This is primarily because  wavelength of red colour is the largest.

Sunlight reaches Earth's atmosphere and is scattered in all directions by all the gases and particles in the air. Blue light is scattered in all directions by the tiny molecules of air in Earth's atmosphere. Blue travels as shorter, smaller waves. So as shorter the wavelength, stronger will be the light scattered. Hence, blue light is strongly scattered.

The blue color of our sky is caused by scattering of light in the atmosphere. Moonrise with blue scattering caused by earth's atmosphere, photographed from the orbit of Space Shuttle Discovery in 1999. Earth seen from the moon in a black sky, since there is no lunar atmosphere.