[Shubham Basera]

The Sun’s light appears to be white. However, it actually consists of every colour in the rainbow.

Light energy moves in waves just like energy moving through the ocean. In some cases, light moves in brief, “choppy” waves. Compared to red light waves, blue light waves are shorter.

Unless something gets in the way and does one of the following actions, all light travels in a straight line.

(Like a mirror) Reflect it

(Like a prism) Bend it

may disperse it (as atmospheric gas molecules do).

When sunlight enters the atmosphere of Earth, all the gases and airborne particles scatter it in all directions. The microscopic air molecules in the Earth’s atmosphere disperse blue light in all directions. Due to the shorter, smaller waves that blue uses to travel, it scatters more than other colours. This explains why the sky is typically blue.

The sky changes to a paler blue or white as it gets closer to the horizon. Even more, the air has been used by the sunlight that is reaching us from low in the sky than by the light that is coming from above. The air molecules dispersed and re-scattered the blue light numerous times in various directions as the sunshine travelled through all of this air.

The light has also been reflected and dispersed by the Earth’s surface. We perceive more white and less blue as a result of all this scattering, which again blends the colours.