Question

In the white light of sun, maximum scattering by the air molecules present in the earth’s atmosphere is for:
Red colour
Yellow colour
Green colour
Blue colour

Answer 1

Hint:Scattering is the phenomenon of spreading out or diffusion of a beam of radiation when it is incident on some matter surface.

Formula used:-Rayleigh scattering , according to Rayleigh the intensity of scattered light varies as \[\dfrac{1}{{{\lambda ^4}}}\].
Where \[\lambda \] is the wavelength of different colors of light.
Increasing order of wavelength \[\lambda \] of different colors present in white light ( V I B G Y O R )
V - Violet
I - Indigo
B - Blue
G - Green
Y - Yello
O - Orange
R - Red
Since scattering have the relation of inverse of the fourth power with the wavelength \[\lambda \]
So the increasing order of the scattering is ( R O Y G B I V )
Red , Yellow , Green , Blue .
Hence in white light of the sun, maximum scattering by the air molecules present in the earth’s atmosphere is for Blue colour .

Option ( D ) id the correct option.

Note :-Atoms or molecules which are exposed to light absorb light energy and re-emit light in different directions with different intensity , this is the process that is happening in scattering at molecular or atomic level.
Scattering is significantly useful in medical ultrasound , polymerization process,free – space communication, acoustic tiling , computer – generating imagery .
Sparkling of diamond- The sparkling of diamond is due to total internal reflection inside it. Total internal reflection is a phenomenon that is seen when light goes from denser medium to rarer medium. If the angle of incidence of light is greater than the critical angle at the boundary of two surfaces the phenomenon of total internal reflection is observed.
Optical fibre is the thing that is based on the total internal reflection of light.
Mirage formation - Mirage is caused by total internal internal reflection in deserts where due to the heating of the earth ,refractive index of air near the earth surface becomes lesser than above it. Light from distant objects reaches the surface of the earth such that the angle of incidence is greater than critical angle of the interface so a total internal reflection will take place and we see the image of an object along with the object .