skyscape

weekend skies

“One of the first questions a curious child often asks about the natural world is “why is the sky blue?” Yet despite how widespread this question is, there are many misconceptions and incorrect answers bandied about — because it reflects the ocean; because oxygen is a blue-colored gas; because sunlight has a blue tint — while the right answer is often thoroughly overlooked. In truth, the reason the sky is blue is because of three simple factors put together: that sunlight is made out of light of many different wavelengths, that Earth’s atmosphere is made out of molecules that scatter different-wavelength light by different amounts, and the sensitivity of our eyes. Put these three things together, and a blue sky is inevitable.”

(cited:Forbes, Ethan Siegel & Starts With A Bang, Why the Sky is Blue, According to Science: Forbes)

Skyscape submitted in response to Blog of Hammad Rais’ Weekend Skies #45

weekend skies

“Have you ever wondered how much a cloud weighs? Because they float so effortlessly, it would be easy to assume they are almost weightless. But, they are most certainly not.”

According to scientists, the weight of the average cumulus cloud is 1.1 million pounds! Think about that for a moment. This means that at any given moment, there are millions of pounds of water floating above your head. That’s the equivalent of 100 elephants.

So, how does that much weight stay afloat? For one thing, the weight is spread out into millions of droplets over a really big space. Some of the droplets are so small that you would need a million of them to make a single raindrop.” cited: headsup.scoutlife.org

image and a bit of science submitted in response to Blog of Hammad Rais’ Weekend Skies