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Question
Explain why, when the sun is overhead at noon, it appears white, but when the same sun is near the horizon at sunset, it appears red.
Solution
When the sun is overhead at noon, sunlight has to travel a shorter distance through the earth's atmosphere to reach us. During this short journey of sunlight through the atmosphere, only a small amount of the blue light is scattered from the white light, keeping most of the white colour intact within it.
However, at sunset or sunrise, the sun appears red because it is near the horizon, and sunlight has to travel a relatively longer distance through the earth's atmosphere to reach us. During this long journey, most of the blue colour is scattered from our line of sight. Therefore, the light reaching our eyes consists of the colour red of sunlight, which is of longer wavelength and is scattered the least.
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RELATED QUESTIONS
With the help of scattering of light, explain the reason for the difference in colours of the Sun as it appears during sunset/sunrise and noon.
Why does the sun seem to rise two minutes before the actual sunrise and set two minutes after the actual sunset ? Explain with the help of labelled diagram.
Name some everyday objects:
which reflect all the colours in sunlight
Why does the sun appear red at sunset?
Sunset is red because at that time the light coming from the sun has to travel:
(a) lesser thickness of earth's atmosphere
(b) greater thickness of earth's atmosphere
(c) varying thickness of earth's atmosphere
(d) along the horizon
Explain in brief the reason for the following :
Delayed sunset
What is meant by advance sunrise and delayed sunset? Draw a labelled diagram to explain these phenomena.
Which phenomenon is responsible for making the path of light visible?
Draw a labelled diagram to show (i) reddish appearance of the sun at the sunrise or the sunset and (ii) white appearance of the sun at noon when it is overhead.
Which of the following statements is correct regarding the propagation of light of different colours of white light in the air?
