Tuesday, October 13, 2015

visible light - Why is the colour of sunlight yellow?


I was going through the preliminary papers of other schools and found a question that I did not know. It was "Why sunlight appears yellow?". Can anyone answer it?



Answer



Color of Sunlight as seen on Earth's surface during day is yellow due to Rayleigh Scattering.



Our Sun is actually white (mixture of all wavelengths of visible spectrum) if we see it from outer space or high-altitude airplanes. Our atmosphere scatters shorter to bigger wavelengths color from sunlight when the white light travels through it. During day, it scatters violet and blue colors leaving yellowish sunlight (the reason why sky is blue and sunlight is yellow). During morning and evening, the sun appears reddish because light rays needs to travel longer distance in atmosphere which causes scattering of yellow light too.


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