• isleepinahammock@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    2 months

    I liked a version of this (I believe) XKCD said once.

    A perfectly valid response to the question, “why is the sky blue?” is simply, “because air is blue.”

    Yes, you can give a lot of explanation about refractive index and Rayleigh scattering. But all this does is provide details of how light interacts with air. And the same reason anything is the color that it is is due to the way it reflects, transmits, or absorbs light. You’re citing real scientific principles, but you’re ultimately just explaining why air is blue.

    • bullsworth@pawb.socialEnglish
      2 months

      It’s a very good relevant XKCD.

      The title text is more directly applicable: If you ask “why are leaves green?” the usual answer is “because they’re full of chlorophyll, and chlorophyll is green,” even though “why does chlorophyll scatter green light?” is a great question too.

    • tetris11@feddit.ukEnglish
      2 months

      But it’s an incomplete answer.

      “air is invisible at short distances, blue at longer distances, and takes on red green and orange at sunset” would be better

      • isleepinahammock@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        2 months

        The same is true for all colors. Tell me the color of a single atom.

        Yes, air can be colors other than blue at unusual light conditions, like sunset. But the same is true for any material.

        You’re stuck on the urge to explain. You call “the air is blue” incomplete. But all answers are incomplete. When someone asks what color an object is, they mean under ordinary distances and conditions. Air is blue even in an ordinary room. It just takes miles worth of air for its slight blue color to be noticeable.

        • SystemDisc@feddit.orgEnglish
          2 months

          Most physical objects I encounter are the same color up close that they are far away…

          Edit: ITT, people who completely misunderstand my point downvoting me and being pedantic

          • Donkter@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2 months

            If a leaf was broken up into microscopic bits and flung into the air you wouldn’t be able to determine what color it was either. So at best the thing thats missing is that there’s a lot less air.

  • whereitsat@lemmy.zipEnglish
    2 months

    lemmy poster here. both of these people are annoying, unfunny fucks.

    bet you didn’t see that one coming!

    btw i have a masters degree in internet posting.

  • Ech@lemmy.caEnglish
    2 months

    Whinging about a fact being wrong without providing a correction is worse than the one being wrong.

    • Not a newt@piefed.caEnglish
      2 months

      That’s from plants that get their air mostly from the shade and sunsets, so obviously they’d be less yellow and more dark and red.