Q.What is the reason for the reddish appearance of the sky during sunset and sunrise?
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🔒 Start your 14-day free trial to unlock the full solution →Concept understanding — Scattering of Light (Rayleigh Scattering)
When sunlight enters the atmosphere, particles and molecules deflect (scatter) light out of its original direction. If the scattering particles are much smaller than the light's wavelength (a≪λ, as with air molecules), the process is called Rayleigh scattering, whose intensity varies as I∝1/λ4 -- shorter wavelengths scatter far more strongly than longer ones. Violet light, having the shortest visible wavelength, is scattered the most, but because the human eye is more sensitive to blue, the daytime sky appears blue. During sunrise and sunset, sunlight travels a much longer path through the atmosphere to reach an observer, so almost all of the strongly-scattered blue (and violet) light is scattered away before arriving, leaving the weakly-scattered red and orange light to dominate, giving the reddish colour of the sky at these times; yellow light (intermediate wavelength, moderately scattered) is therefore preferred for headlights and signals in fog, since it penetrates the scattering haze better than blue/white light while still being reasonably visible. If the scattering particles are much larger than the wavelength (a≫λ, as with the dust and water droplets in clouds), …
At sunrise/sunset, sunlight travels a much longer atmospheric path, scattering away nearly all the blue light before it arrives, leaving red. …
Step 1. At sunrise and sunset, the Sun is near the horizon, so its light travels a much longer path through the atmosphere to reach an observer than at midday.
Step 2. Over this long path, nearly all the strongly-scattered blue and violet light (by Rayleigh's law) is scattered away in every direction before reaching the observer. …
Connect the long atmospheric path at sunrise/sunset to near-total scattering …
- Not explaining WHY the path is longer at sunrise/sunset (the Sun' …
- CBSE 2024Set ANNUAL1 markMCQQ.One cannot see through fog, because :(a) Light is scattered by droplets(b) Fog absorbs the light(c) Light suffer total internal reflection at droplets(d) Refractive index of the fog is infinity
›Reveal solutionSolution
Fog is made of countless tiny water droplets that scatter light in all directions (Tyndall scattering), destroying the sharp image-forming rays.
Fog consists of a suspension of very fine water droplets in air, comparable in size to the wavelength of visible light. When light passes through this suspension, it undergoes scattering (Tyndall effect) in random directions off the droplets, rather than travelling in the original straight, well-defined direction. Because rays from objects get scattered every which way instead of reaching the eye/camera in a coherent bundle, distinct images cannot form and visibility drops sharply.
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- CBSE 2022Set I1 markMCQQ.Which of the following relations is correct for intensity of scattered light (I) and wavelength of light (λ)? (A) I ∝ 1/λ (B) I ∝ 1/λ^2 (C) I ∝ 1/λ^3 (D) I ∝ 1/λ^4
›Reveal solutionSolution
By Rayleigh's law, the intensity of scattered light I ∝ 1/λ⁴.
For scattering by particles much smaller than the wavelength (Rayleigh scattering), the scattered intensity is inversely proportional to the fourth power of the wavelength:
I∝λ41.
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- CBSE 2022Set HE2171 markQ.Fill in the blank: The cause of blue colour of sky is ______.
›Reveal solutionSolution
The sky looks blue because air molecules scatter the shorter-wavelength (blue) component of sunlight much more strongly than the longer wavelengths.
Sunlight passing through the atmosphere is scattered by air molecules and fine dust particles, a process called Rayleigh scattering. The intensity of this scattering varies as I∝λ41, so shorter wavelengths (blue/violet end of the visible spectrum) are scattered far more than longer wavelengths (red end). Although violet is scattered even more than blue, the eye is more sensitive to blue and the sun's spectrum has less violet, so the overall effect we see when looking away from the sun is a blue sky. (By the same reasoning, at sunris …
- CBSE 2021Set TERM21 markMCQQ.The reddish appearance of the sun at sunrise and sunset is due to:(a) the dispersion of light(b) the scattering of light(c) the diffraction of light(d) the polarisation of light
›Reveal solutionSolution
Sunlight travels through a much thicker layer of atmosphere at sunrise/sunset; Rayleigh scattering removes most of the blue light from the direct beam, leaving the transmitted light red.
Rayleigh scattering intensity ∝λ41, so shorter wavelengths (blue/violet) scatter far more strongly off air molecules than longer wavelengths (red/orange).
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- CBSE 2020Set 55/2/11 markQ.Out of red, blue and yellow lights, the scattering of ___________ light is maximum.
›Reveal solutionSolution
The scattering of light is inversely proportional to the fourth power of its wavelength. Blue light has the shortest wavelength among red, blue, and yellow, so its scattering is maximum.
The key to this question lies in understanding Rayleigh scattering — the phenomenon that explains why the sky is blue and why sunsets appear red. When light travels through a medium (like air), it interacts with particles much smaller than its wavelength. The amount of scattering depends strongly on the wavelength of the light.
For Rayleigh scattering, the intensity of scattered light is proportional to λ41, where λ is the wavelength of light.
This means shorter wavelengths scatter much more than longer ones. Let's apply this to the three colours given.
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Recall the approximate wavelengths of the three colours in the visible spectrum:
- Red light: longest wavelength, roughly 620−750 nm
- Yellow light: intermediate, roughly 570−590 nm
- Blue light: shortest wavelength, roughly 450−495 nm
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Apply the λ41 rule: Since scattering intensity is inversely proportional to the fourth power of wavelength, even a small difference in wavelength leads to a large difference in scattering. Blue, having the smallest λ, will scatter the most. Red, with the largest λ, scatters the least. Yellow falls in between. …
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- CBSE 2020Set ANNUAL1 markQ.What do you understand by scattering of light?
›Reveal solutionSolution
Scattering is the redirection of light in various directions by small particles in its path, rather than the light continuing to travel in a straight line.
When a beam of light passes through a medium containing fine particles (molecules, dust, water droplets) whose size is comparable to or smaller than the wavelength of light, the particles absorb the light momentarily and re-radiate it in all directions. This redirection of light is called scattering.
For particles much smaller than the wavelength of light (like air molecules), Lord Rayleigh showed that the intensity of scattered light varies as:
I∝λ41
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- CBSE 2017Set ANNUAL1 markQ.Eye is more sensitive to yellow colour but danger signals are made with red colour. Why?
›Reveal solutionSolution
Red is chosen for danger signals not because the eye is most sensitive to it, but because red travels farthest through the atmosphere without scattering.
The human eye's photopic (daylight) sensitivity curve peaks around λ≈555nm, which lies in the yellow-green region - this is why yellow/green appear 'brightest' to us for the same power of light.
However, for a danger or warning signal, what matters most is not peak sensitivity but range and reliability of visibility, especially through fog, mist, dust or smoke. By Rayleigh's scattering law, the amount a wave is scattered by small atmospheric particles varies as
Iscattered∝λ41 …
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