Have you ever wondered why the sky is blue but sunsets can be pink and orange? Or how it can still be light on a cloudy day? Or how you can see dust particles in the sun or the path of a laser? The answer is a special type of reflection called scattering.
Watch this animation to find out how light scatters and what makes scattering different from reflection.
Stop the animation at any time, watch it again, or read the transcript.
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Light energy interacts with everything around us. And one of the main ways it does, is by hitting an object or medium and bouncing off. This is called reflection.
But reflection comes in different flavors- so to speak-- depending on what wavelengths of light are being reflected, what type of object or surface they are interacting with (big/small, smooth/bumpy) and the directions in which they are being bounced.
When visible light bounces off a smooth surface, the light reflects with very little interference in a predictable direction. The result? A mirror image.
But if that surface is bumpy or uneven the wavelengths bounce in many different directions--this type of reflection is called scattering-- and it’s the way we see most things around us. (red apple)
And this light scattering, when applied to teeny objects-- on the scale of molecules -- can produce some amazing things. The most famous of which is a result of blue wavelengths of light scattering off of air molecules (blue sky).
Absorption of some wavelengths and scattering or reflection of others is how we see what we see. It’s the reason for those skies of blue and clouds of white.
Write a sentence describing each of the following terms and give an example:
Reflect
Scatter
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