A Flat Earther's Rough Guide To Winning A Nobel Prize - Overcoming Rayleigh: Why Is The Sky Blue?
We are coming to the end of our Nobel Prize winner camp for flat-earthers, we have been on a hell of a ride whilst learning how to blow holes in the glober myth of a round earth.
In this article I want to highlight another difficulty the flat earth model has, however I'm sure that, seeing as it is real, there is also some real science to explain this next completely inexplicable phenomenon.
Let's Hear It For Mr Rayleigh
A popular myth that schoolchildren are told (usually by their parents, or kindergarten teachers), is that the reason the sky is blue, is that it is reflecting the colour of the sea.
For years this explanation didn't sit well with me. Why; I thought to myself, did water turn blue when there was a lot of it? I mean, the water in my glass isn't blue, when it comes out of the tap it isn't blue, it's not blue in the bath; why is the sea blue?
Of course the actual answer was worked out by Nobel Prize winning-British physicist; John William Strut, a.k.a. Lord Rayleigh (pronounced ray-lee). The phenomena was named after him, and today we know that the sky is blue in the day because of Rayleigh scattering.
Tiny particles in the gasses in our atmosphere, are struck by the light from the sun, and to cut a long story short, the shorter wavelength of blue light gets through much more efficiently than the longer wavelength colours like red, which are scattered.
However in the evening, when the sun is on the horizon, the light has more of the atmosphere to travel through, hence Rayleigh scattering gives us a red sky.
The exact equations, (linked below) and exact elements in the atmosphere that are responsible for Rayleigh scattering have been identified and the theory proved time and time again.
Tales Of A Flat Sky
The problem with the flat earth model, which I'm sure you're fully aware of, and therefore have the answer to. Is that if the sun is directly above the earth at all times, this throws up a very tricky problem.
Rayleigh scattering would indeed probably make the sky blue on a flat earth, however the sky would never be red. Even within the spotlight theory, the light from the sun would still be going through the same amount of atmosphere to reach the ground.
At the very edges, in order to create the dramatic sunsets that every person on earth has seen at one point or another, the spotlight angle would have to be so wide, that the sun would be literally sitting on top of us.
So what you have to do, is come up with a new set of mathematics, chemistry, and physics that can explain why the sky goes through the colour range it does from sunrise, to sunset, and voila! Nobel Prize!
By now you are going to have to build a new trophy cabinet to hold all of these Nobel Prizes; in some ways, it will be like you are taking the prizes of the very people who discovered made up these things in the first place.
Plugging The Gaps
As I said at the beginning, we are nearly at the end of our series now. Hopefully you have had answers that you can turn into at least outlines of scientific papers, which will eventually lead to you winning multiple Nobel Prizes.
However I want you to remember, that if just one element of what I have highlighted cannot be explained within a flat earth model, then you have to reject the whole thing.
Woah! Seems harsh? Well the problem is, that the round earth model predicts all these things and more. We have technology based on a round earth model, in an Einsteinian universe; it's called the Global Positioning Satellite System, otherwise known as GPS.
So if human society is going to use your model, then it has to work outside of the confines of the human mind. Which I'm sure it does! All you have to do is prove it, then simply sit back and collect your Nobel Prizes.
Good luck!
Further reading:
Rayleigh scattering: Wiki
Blue Sky And Rayleigh Scattering: - Hyper Physics
Why Is the Sky Blue?: - Atmospheric Optics
Image citation:
Related musings:
A Flat Earther's Rough Guide To Winning A Nobel Prize - Tackling The Sun Problem
A Flat Earther's Rough Guide To Winning A Nobel Prize - Much Ado About Gravity
A Flat Earther's Rough Guide To Winning A Nobel Prize - Eclipsing Logic
A Flat Earther's Rough Guide To Winning A Nobel Prize - Sub Solar Seasoning
Cryptogee Musings Contents Pages:
IN THE NEXT ONE OF OUR ROUGH GUIDES WE WILL BE WRAPPING UP THE SERIES WITH THE HARDEST OBSERVABLE PHENOMEN TO EXPLAIN YET. MUCH MUCH MORE DIFFICULT TO EXPLAIN THAN ANYTHING WE HAVE TALKED ABOUT.
IN THE MEANTIME PLEASE FEEL FREE TO REWRITE ALL SCIENCE AS WE KNOW IT AND WIN YOUR MULTIPLE NOBELS FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTION TO HUMANKIND!
IF YOU HAVE ALREADY DONE THAT, THEN AS EVER, PLEASE LET ME KNOW BELOW!
@cryptogee Nice post, however I think your missing half of the story as to why the sky is blue. There is an electric dipole interaction between the atoms in the atmosphere and the light that comes from the sun. The electric field causes an oscillation of the dipole, blue light has a higher frequency than red, so oscillates the dipoles at a faster rate.
This equation basically says that there is more power emitted for higher frequency oscillations. Therefore the sky seems blue because the dipoles are emitting more blue light than red. This is the reason the sky is blue.
When the sun is low then scattering of the light dominates, so more red light is scattered into the atmosphere, even though the dipole interaction is still occurring.
I hope that helped :)
See you around @physics.benjamin
Beautifully put Benjamin, thank you!
I did actually see this formula as I was researching the article; however I couldn't figure out a way of putting it in, whilst still talking about the angle of incidence of sunlight at evening, and making my flat earth point in less than 800 words :-)
Cg
Thank you very much. You did an awesome job at explaining it, and hopefully it shuts up the flat earthers, they are a pain in the bum.
I remember my physics teacher saying that the sky is blue because of diffraction saying "blue bends best", yes it bends best but it didnt cause the blue sky haha. I was happy to learn to real reason.
Thanks for your contribution to shutting up that ridiculous movement. I'll find some time to have a look at your other posts too :)
See you around @cryptogee :D
Haha, thanks, I'm sure it won't do anything to shut up the real hardcore, but hopefully it will do some small good in educating somebody who is just coming to the theory and thinking that it has some credibility.
See you around and, long live sanity! :-)
Cg
I my self used to wonder the same as a child,
Why ocean is blue??? Thanks for explaining Rayleigh scattering...
As a child I imagined that we all live in the eye of a huge bull...lolzzz
PS
Please correct the spelling "kindegarten" and "atmoshphere"
WOW. This is an excellent information. I really did not know! It was a very interesting topic.
Then, in cloudy weather, the sky appears in shades of gray because all the shades are scattered about equal amounts. is it correct ?
sun rays, dancing with molecules in the air and coloring the sky.
it's a super idea :)
I followed your excellent articles with pleasure. you always choose very good subjects. Thank you my dear friend
Yes there are different types of scattering, like Wei scattering, which describes how light scatters when hitting rain clouds. So assuming a clear sky, we will get perfect blue or red, depending on the time of day.
That is a beautiful way of putting it, and also very accurate! Who says that there is no poetry in science?! :-)
Thank you for your attention and comments, always appreciated! :-)
Cg
Perhaps science is made up of poetic ideas!
:D
good explanation about why the sea is blue .. I have a question if the earth were flat ... what would be on the other side of the earth? I imagine it would be greenland type covered with pure snow .. says that in Groelandia lasts 6 months of day and 6 months of night I do not know if that will be a myth or it will be real .. because I have never been to Greenland .
When I was a child I used to say that the water in my glass was white or transparent, but how come the sea is so blue in different shades? and even green? it's a super interesting subject that needs a lot of study, today I felt a little ignorant, I must read more thanks @cryptogee excuse me my English, use translator
Your are wise person. And Steem became me wiser too 😎😎😎😎
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