Rayleigh scattering and the blue sky
Dispersión de Rayleigh y el color azul del cielo
- Date
- 1871 · confidence high
- Place
- Cambridge, England, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- John William Strutt (Lord Rayleigh)
- Field
- Communication
What was discovered
Rayleigh shows that particles much smaller than the wavelength scatter light in proportion to the inverse fourth power of the wavelength. It explains the blue sky and the red sunset.
Tyndall had studied light scattered by particles in 1859-1869 without a mathematical law; Rayleigh first thought of particles, and the explanation by air molecules was given by Einstein (1910). Place imprecise: Strutt married in 1871 and left Cambridge college life.
What it led to
- the theory of light scattering and atmospheric turbidity
- Einstein's density fluctuations (1910)
- fundamental losses in optical fibres