Answer:
But in a cloud, sunlight is scattered by much larger water droplets. These scatter all colours almost equally meaning that the sunlight continues to remain white and so making the clouds appear white against the background of the blue sky.
Step-by-step explanation:
The sky appears blue because of a phenomenon called Rayleigh scattering. When sunlight enters the Earth's atmosphere, it is made up of different colors of light, each with a different wavelength. The shorter wavelengths of light, such as blue and violet, are scattered more by the molecules in the atmosphere compared to the longer wavelengths, such as red and orange. This scattering of shorter wavelengths causes the blue light to be redirected in different directions, making it appear to come from all parts of the sky.
Clouds, on the other hand, appear white because of a different type of scattering called Mie scattering. Clouds are made up of tiny water droplets or ice crystals. These particles are much larger than the molecules in the atmosphere and can scatter all wavelengths of light equally. As a result, when sunlight passes through a cloud, the light is scattered in all directions, giving the cloud a white appearance.
It's important to note that clouds can also appear gray or dark when they become thicker or when they block more sunlight. This happens because the cloud particles absorb and scatter more sunlight, reducing the amount of light that reaches our eyes.
In summary, the sky appears blue due to the scattering of shorter wavelengths of light by the molecules in the atmosphere, while clouds appear white due to the scattering of light by the water droplets or ice crystals they contain.
The sky appears blue because of the way light from the sun interacts with the molecules in our atmosphere. The blue light is scattered more than other colors because it travels as shorter waves. Clouds appear white because they are made up of tiny water droplets that scatter all colors of light, making them appear white.
The sky appears blue because of a phenomenon called Rayleigh scattering. When sunlight reaches Earth's atmosphere, it encounters tiny molecules of air, such as nitrogen and oxygen. These molecules are much smaller than the wavelength of light, and as a result, they scatter the sunlight in all directions. However, the shorter wavelength blue light is scattered more than the other colors in the visible spectrum, like red and green. This is because the blue light has shorter, smaller waves, which makes it more likely to interact with the molecules and get scattered.
As a result, when we look up at the sky during the day, we see this scattered blue light coming from all directions, giving the sky its blue appearance.
Now, let's talk about clouds. Clouds are made up of tiny water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air. These droplets are much larger than the molecules in the atmosphere, which means they interact with light differently.
When sunlight passes through a cloud, the light gets scattered by the water droplets in a process called Mie scattering. Unlike Rayleigh scattering, Mie scattering scatters all colors of light more or less equally, rather than favoring blue light. This is because the water droplets are larger and can scatter all wavelengths of light.
As a result, when we look at a cloud, we see the scattered light from the water droplets, which appears as white. The cloud appears white because it is reflecting and scattering all the colors of sunlight that reach it.