Complete the following statements:When the sun is setting, the light from it has to travel a ____________ thickness of the earth's atmosphere and only ____________ wavelength ____________ light is able to reach us. Sunset is therefore ____________ _____.

When the sun is setting, the light from it has to travel a greater thickness of the earth's atmosphere and only the longer wavelength red light is able to reach us. Sunset is therefore red in colour.

Explanation

When the sun rises and sets it appears red because, at that time, the sun is near the horizon and, therefore, sunlight has to travel a greater distance through the atmosphere to reach us. During this long journey of sunlight, most of the shorter wavelength like blue-colour present in it is scattered out and away from our line of sight. Therefore, the light reaching us directly from the rising sun or setting sun contains mainly of longer wavelength which is red colour. Thus, the sun appears red.

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Updated on: 10-Oct-2022

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