When the sun rises in the east, it appears like a red ball. As the day advances, its colour appears white, but again at the time of sunset in the evening, it appears red. Do you know why it is so?
We know that our earth is surrounded by the blanket of air called atmosphere. Sunlight passes through the atmosphere before it reaches us. We also know that sun light is composed of seven colours – Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange and Red. In the mornings and evenings, when the sun is near the horizon, the rays have to travel about fifty time’s longer path in the atmosphere to reach us than it does in the noon. The dust, smoke and water vapour present in the atmosphere scatter away these colours differently. Violet, indigo and blue are scattered most and red and orange are scattered least. That is why most of these two colours reach our eyes. As a result, the rising and setting sun appears red.
