Poems and Thoughts    by Frank Maurer

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Is the Sky Really Blue? Most every day we are living under a 'deceptively-covering dome'. It is the sky. Is the sky really the blue we all see? Well, actually, no. Simply explained, blue light in our atmosphere Is scattered more than red light, thus the blue sky. Remember how light is skewed through a prism. If this is so, then why is it that we don't see a violet sky? Think of photons bouncing off molecules of air. But there is a difference between photons and air molecules. One difference is that the amount of scattering Depends on the wavelengths (color) of the light. Shorter wavelengths of light scatter more. Starting with red to violet (ROY G. BIV), The wavelengths go from long to short-- So the shorter blue wavelengths are scattered more. Thus our sky appears blue from all the scattered blue light. Also sunsets can appear red because blue light is scattered away, Resulting in a reddish looking sunset. But still, why doesn't the sky appear violet? Violet has an even shorter wavelength than blue, Therefore violet should be scattered more than blue. So why does the sky not appear violet, or even a violet-blue? Actually the sky is violet, but appears blue Because of how our eyes function! But that is another story. Frank Maurer 9 August 2025 1335 Hours.