Blue Skies, Coffee Creamer, and Rayleigh Scattering

• Autores: Michael Liebl
• Localización: The Physics Teacher, ISSN 0031-921X, Vol. 48, Nº. 5, 2010, págs. 300-301
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The first physical explanation of Earths blue sky was fashioned in 1871 by Lord Rayleigh.1Many discussions of Rayleigh scattering and approaches to studying it both in and out of the classroom are available.2�5Rayleigh scattering accounts for the blue color of the sky and the orange/red color of the Sun near sunset and sunrise, and a number of classroom demonstrations have been described for showing the effects.6�11This paper describes how these demonstrations can be enhanced by using a spectrometer to measure the preferential scattering of the shorter wavelength light.