Question

What is scattering of light ?

Answer 1

Hint: Here we are asked what is scattering of light. In order to answer this question we will first know what is meant by scattering and then proceed to know the process of scattering of light.

Complete answer:
Light can be observed entirely from its source. When light passes from one medium to another medium, say air, a glass of water then a few parts of the light rays are absorbed by particles of the medium preceded by its subsequent radiation in a particular direction. This phenomenon is defined as a scattering of light.

Shorter wavelength and high frequency scatter more due to the waviness of the line and its interaction with a particle. The greater the line, the more are the chances of it interacting with a particle. On the other hand, if wavelengths are longer then we have low frequency, and they are straighter and chances of interacting with the particle are less so the chances are also less.

The bending of multi coloured light can be observed in the afternoon due to the refraction and total internal reflection of light. Different colours in different directions are formed by the wavelength of the sunlight. The red colour of the sun in the morning and blue colour of the sky are the result of Rayleigh scattering theory.

Note: Let $p$ be considered as the probability of scattering and $\lambda $ is the wavelength of radiation, then it is given as:
$p\propto \dfrac{1}{{{\lambda }^{4}}}$.
The probability for scattering is inversely proportional to the fourth power of the wavelength of radiation and it will give a high rise for shorter wavelengths.