Question

The Blue of the Sky Question
(a) Assuming the incident intensities are equal, by what factor is the intensity of 400 nm blue light greater than the intensity of 600 nm red light in the light scattered from the sky?

(b) If you look with a “crossed” polarizer at 90? to the sun’s rays you might expect to see a black sky, since light from that direction should be perfectly polarized. There is, however, the possibility of seeing light that has been Rayleigh scattered twice, neither scattering at 90?. The light scattered the first time has an intensity ? 1/?4, and then when this light is scattered a second time, the intensity gains another factor 1/?4. Thus it should vary as 1/?8. In this case what is the relative intensity of 400 nm and 600 nm light? How would it actually appear?

Answer 1