Why is the ocean blue? I've been told it's because the sky is blue and visa versa. What do you think?

Question

I've been told it's because the sky is blue, and visa versa. What do you think?

Answer 1

You've probably seen your reflection in a pool of water. That's because water to some extent can act like a mirror. So, the oceans are huge mirrors, and if the sky over that part of the ocean you're looking at is blue, so will be the ocean. Take a look at the ocean on cloudy days too...it's grey, like the clouds above.



God is spelled B-I-G B-A-N-G

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Answer 2

The sky is blue because light (which we all know consists of all the colors of the rainbow) is filtered by out atmosphere. Rather than passing directly through the atmosphere, the blue part of the spectrum bounces around inside it.



Water, specifically the ocean, is blue because the surface of the water acts like a mirror and reflects the blue in the sky.



Your assumption was correct, I've just filled in the rest.



Mystery solved and clarified.

Answer 3

Water is light blue but it takes a large volume of water to become obvious. A river appears bluer than a glass of water and a deep lake or ocean appears bluer still. There can be other natural things that add colour. The Red Sea is blue because of the presence of red algae. Other algae makes the sea appear greenish blue. The surface of oceans and lakes often reflects blue sunlight while absorbing red light: the water also enhances the scattering of blue light. Chandrasekhar Venkata Raman won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930 for his work on this effect.

Answer 4

The sky is blue as Dirtywhiteguy says because of the filtering affect of our atmosphere. Cirtain molecules absorbe cirtain wavelengths of light. This also explains the orange color of the sun rise and sun set. When the sun is lower on the horizon the sun is filtered and defracted so that we see the reds and oranges at the lower end of the color spectrum.



The ocean is blue for the same reason. Water absorbes reds, oranges, and yellows, in that order. Water also reflects blues and greens. You can see this when you go scuba diving. The deeper you go the first colors to go are reds and oranges because these colors are absorbed by the water in the first 30-60 feet. Deeper than 60 feet or so, the color red looks black. This is some deep sea fish are red, because deep under water they become harder to see.

Answer 5

nicely your excellent, the water interior the sea is sparkling, nicely only about, it truly is particularly turbid as a results of extreme salt content fabric. We see the sea as blue because our mind is attempting to make sense of all the diverse colorings below the water. the creation of frequently blue is only the way we see is, no longer the way it surely is. The sky is blue because in fact an same reason, its frequently semitransparent, although the human mind has the want to make sense of the international round us, So the idea is that the sky is blue, yet it really is only the way our mind is examining the Prism of colorings that saturate our sky, and oceans alike.

Answer 6

it all has to do with the way color reflects off of things. That used to be the question every parent hated. Why is the sky blue and the grass green. now you don't hear that much because it is explaned at a much earlier age. Light has color waves and they reflecy off of certain objects different ways. Mystery solved.

Answer 7

There are particles present in ocean water and lakes which are naturally ocuring colloidal salts which causes scaterring of blue or green light most of times ( ur lemon juice is light yellow due to citrate ions ) . it is the particle property of colloids . It ain't reflection of sky

Answer 8

I think that is correct, it is light reflecting off the ocean and atmosphere that causes the blue tinting.

Answer 9

Hmmm... That can't be right can it? I mean, direction of causality and all that. I think it's just those pesky light wavicles being bent in just the right spot again. Maybe?

Answer 10

this can't be true, because when they dye Lake Michigan green for St. Patty's day the sky doesn't turn green...