How does refraction affect the appearance of the sky?

1 Answer
Aritra G.
Jun 8, 2015

Refraction (dispersion) along with total internal reflection causes the bright rainbows in the sky.

Moreover, to explain the blue appearance of the sky, we need to consider the scattering of light by dust particles. The scattering of light depends on #1/lamda^4#, and thus violet and indigo light is scattered the most during the sky.
But, since our eyes are more sensitive to blue (indigo) than violet, we see the sky blue.

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