Why is the sky blue and sunsets red?

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

Light of a shorter wavelength (blue) gets scattered more easily by the atmosphere. This makes the sky blue, the sun yellow (or red at sunset) etc.

For details, see the link below to my recent answer to someone who was wondering why the Sun may look yellow...

Now, I am just waiting for someone to ask about the "green flash" (the dot of white or green light visible for a brief moment, under favorable conditions, as the red disk of the Sun disappears at sunset). Have you ever seen it? If not, watch for it next time you have the opportunity to watch a sunset over the Ocean...

Source(s):

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?…

Answer 2

So glad you asked, I've been waiting to paste this link for a while.
http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/sky_blu…

Answer 3

The sky is blue because it is reflecting the oceans. The sunset is red because of the distortion of the sunlight through the atmosphere and its obstruction by objects in the distance.

Answer 4

as the sun sets (or rises), the light has to bend (refract) slightly around the curvature of the earth. the light that does that most easily is the longer wavelengths, ie red.

as for the blue sky, that is because the shorter wavelengths get scattered by gas molecules in the sky, and they are mainly blue.

Answer 5

actually the sky only seems blue because that is the only color of light you can see at that point, but whenever you look at the sunset the only rays of light you can see are orange or red. Why? because blue rays of light are straight lines and red are curved therefor looking straight on you see blue and from the side you see red.