Interactive Primary Newsletter 34 Nothin' but blue sky....

Light and colour On a recent visit to the beach, I was asked by the older of my two grandchildren why the sky was blue. Not to be outdone, the younger one then asked why the sea was blue? How do you answer these questions in a way that an eight and six year old will understand? One way is to say that when the light from the Sun, which contains all the colours of the rainbow, hits the Earth’s air it is scattered, and it is mainly blue light that is scattered out of the sky. Experience should have warned me of the question and answer session that would follow such an explanation. These questions are answered a little more fully in this Newsletter and a number of tried and tested experiments are described. Ian Buchanan, Senior Associate   Why is the sky blue?