Question

Choose the correct option:
Assertion: The moon appears purely white during the day but after sunset, its color is yellowish hue.
Reason: The scattered blue component of white light is mixed with yellow the color becomes white.
(A) Assertion is true. Reason is also true and is the correct explanation of the assertion.
(B) Assertion is true. Reason is also true and is not the correct explanation of the assertion.
(C) Assertion is true and reason is false.
(D) Assertion is false and reason is true.

Answer 1

Hint
The moon, during the daylight, reflects all sunlight equally but the reflected light is not scattered enough. Also, during the day the moon has to compete with sunlight, whose color is also scattered by the atmosphere. Also, it is true that the mixture of red, green, and blue color gives the white color.

Complete step by step answer
When the moon is up in the sky during the daylight, it reflects all sunlight equally and the reflected light not being scattered enough, the moon appears white during the day. Now, during the day the moon has to compete with sunlight, whose color is also scattered by the atmosphere, so it looks white. So, the assertion is correct.
Now, during the sunset, the reflected light from the moon has to travel a longer distance. In such a case, only the lights with longer wavelengths of the spectrum are capable of traveling long distances after scattering. These colors are yellow, orange, and red. Hence, the moon appears a yellowish hue after sunset.
But the reason is also correct as the mixture of red, green, and blue color gives the white color. But this is not the correct explanation of the assertion.
Option (B) is correct.

Note
Always remember that when the reflected light from the moon hits the earth’s atmosphere, during daylight, the light has to pass through a lot of numbers of disturbances, such as water vapor, dust particles, etc. So, it gets disrupted by various factors and appears as various shades of white and starts fading.