NEET-UG and JEE Main Physics · Class 12
Scattering of light - blue sky and red sunset — NEET & JEE Questions
Scattering of light - blue sky and red sunset is a topic in Optics, a Class 12 Physics chapter of the NEET-UG and JEE Main syllabus. TestBudy holds 14 published NEET-UG and JEE Main questions on Scattering of light - blue sky and red sunset, each with the marking scheme of the real paper.
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Scattering of light - blue sky and red sunset MCQs with solutions
10 of the 14 published questions on this topic, exactly as they appear in a test. Answers and worked solutions come with your result rather than on this page.
The blue colour of a clear daytime sky is mainly due to
- A. greater absorption of blue by air
- B. reflection of oceans only
- C. stronger scattering of shorter visible wavelengths by the atmosphere
- D. gamma-ray emission from molecules
Rayleigh scattering intensity varies approximately as
- A. λ⁴
- B. 1/λ
- C. λ
- D. 1/λ⁴
The Sun often looks reddish near sunset because
- A. shorter wavelengths are scattered out of the long atmospheric path
- B. red light travels slower in vacuum
- C. the Sun emits only red light in the evening
- D. blue wavelengths are converted into infrared
Why is the sky not normally violet even though violet scatters more strongly than blue?
- A. Violet has a longer wavelength than red
- B. Human visual sensitivity, solar spectrum and atmospheric absorption make blue dominate perceived sky colour
- C. Violet is not electromagnetic radiation
- D. Rayleigh scattering excludes violet completely
The daytime sky appears blue mainly because molecules in the atmosphere scatter
- A. shorter visible wavelengths more strongly than longer wavelengths
- B. red light more strongly than blue light
- C. all visible wavelengths equally
- D. only infrared radiation
If wavelength doubles in the Rayleigh regime, scattered intensity becomes approximately
- A. 2 times
- B. 4 times
- C. 1/16 as large
- D. 16 times
Which colour is scattered more strongly by very small atmospheric particles?
- A. Red
- B. Both equally
- C. Infrared more than blue by Rayleigh law
- D. Blue
Compared with red light, blue light of roughly half the wavelength would be Rayleigh-scattered by approximately what factor?
- A. 16 times more strongly
- B. 8 times more strongly
- C. 2 times more strongly
- D. half as strongly
The Sun often appears reddish near sunset because
- A. its light travels through a longer atmospheric path, removing more short-wavelength light by scattering
- B. red light is scattered out of the direct beam most strongly
- C. the Sun emits only red light at sunset
- D. the atmosphere stops scattering blue light
Astronauts on the Moon see a dark sky even in daylight mainly because
- A. the Moon lacks a substantial atmosphere to scatter sunlight
- B. sunlight cannot reach the Moon
- C. visible light is absorbed by vacuum
- D. the Moon emits only infrared
Common mistakes in Scattering of light - blue sky and red sunset
Recorded against questions in this topic that are not shown above, so none of these points at an answer you can see on this page.
- Assumes sky colour arises directly from sunlight without atmospheric scattering.
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