Why Is The Sky Blue - For Kids

Why is the Sky Blue? Great question.

The light that travels to the earth from the sun looks to be white or yellow. But actually it is made up of all the colors of the rainbow. You can see this by using a prism or a glass. This breaks the sunlight up into its rainbow colored parts:

Figure 1. Sunlight Passing Through Angled Glass Will Show It Is Made Up Of All Colors.

Figure 2. Holding White Paper Near The Prism Shows The Rainbow.

Figure 3. Using a Wine Glass Filled With Water Produces Some Rainbows in the Sunlight.

When you look up into the sky, you are actually looking through the Earth's atmosphere. This is billions of little oxygen and nitrogen molecules that float around in the sky. These molecules make up the air we breathe.

When the sunlight hits the earth's atmosphere, the blue light is reflected in all directions:

The other colors - red, orange, yellow - also bounce off the molecules, but the blue light is scattered the strongest. Your eye is sensitive to blue light, and this reflected energy causes the sky to appear blue when we look at it.

If you want to understand this fascinating subject in more detail, try to go through the main sections of this website in order to understand why the sky is blue. Have a great day!