What to Do:
1. Fill container with H20 and place light source so the beam shines through.
2. Add powdered milk one pinch at a time and stir until you can clearly see the beam shining through.
3. Look at the beam from the side and the end of the tank. From the end the beam should look yellow-orange, and from the side it should look blue.
What's Happening?
The Sun produces light, which is made up of all the colors: violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red. Each one of these colors is a different wavelength of light. Violet, indigo, and blue light has a higher frequency (shorter wavelength) than red, orange, and yellow light. When light from the Sun shines through the Earth's atmosphere (the powdered mile represents the dust particles in the air), it collides with gas molecules that scatter the light. The shorter the wavelength of light, the more it is scattered. Because its wavelength is shorter, blue light is scattered ten times more than red light, so the sky appears to be blue.
