On our way to record heat this weekend and we're stuck inside, staring at the bright blue skies from the comforts of our living rooms.
If the kids are looking for a quick science fix, here's a fun experiment to do that answers the age-old question: Why is the sky blue?
What you need:
- Water
- Milk
- Flashlight
In this experiment, the jar or glass of water will be the atmosphere and the flashlight, the sun. Put a very small amount of milk in the glass, the milk will be the gases in the atmosphere. When you shine the flashlight through the glass, there will be a faint hint of blue to the milk.
Visible light consists of all the colors of the rainbow - red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet. Each color has a specific wavelength - red being the longest, blue & violet the shortest.
The longer wavelengths of light - reds, oranges & yellows - move through the gases in the atmosphere. At the same time, the shorter wavelengths of light, like the blues, get scattered and bounced around - making color more visible to our eyes.