Massal Stories

Why Is the Sky Blue?

An illustrated story by Little Lantern · Learning · 3D animation · All ages · English, Turkish

A curious girl and her pocket-sized robot ride a sunbeam to find out why the sky is blue and sunsets are red.

Deniz wants to know why the sky is blue and not green. Her tiny robot Bip takes her on a ride on a sunbeam: sunlight looks white but carries every colour; when it reaches Earth's air, the short, wiggly blue waves bump into the tiny bits of air and bounce all over the sky, while red travels straight on. At sunset the light crosses so much air that the blue is bounced away before it arrives, and only red and orange make it home.

Characters

  • Deniz (Curious girl): An eight-year-old who asks "why?" about everything and writes the answers in her notebook.
  • Bip (Pocket-sized robot): Deniz's teacup-sized robot friend, who knows a lot of science and can shrink them both.

Episode 1: A Ride on a Sunbeam

Deniz and Bip ride a sunbeam from the Sun into the air to see where the blue comes from, and stay for the sunset.

Deniz asks why the sky is blue.

Deniz: Bip, why is the sky blue and not green?

Bip: Let's go and see for ourselves!

They jump onto a sunbeam.

So they hopped onto the next sunbeam that touched the garden.

WHOOSH!

Near the Sun, Bip splits sunlight into a rainbow.

Bip: Sunlight looks white, but it carries every colour.

Deniz sees the colours travel as waves.

Deniz: Red waves are long and lazy. Blue ones are short and wiggly!

They approach the Earth and its thin layer of air.

Bip: That thin glowing layer is the air around the Earth.

Bip shrinks them to see the air up close.

Bip shrank them smaller than a speck of dust.

Bip: Air is made of tiny bits, far too small to see.

Blue light bounces everywhere, red goes straight.

Bip: Blue light bumps into the air and bounces every which way!

Deniz: And red just zooms straight through!

Back home, blue reaches Deniz from all over the sky.

Deniz: Blue reaches our eyes from every part of the sky. That's why!

The sun sets and Deniz has a new question.

Deniz: But then why is the sunset red?

Bip: At sunset, light crosses much more air to reach you.

Only red and orange make the long trip; Deniz writes it down.

Bip: The blue is bounced away on the long trip. Red and orange get home.

Deniz: Tomorrow's question: why is the sea blue?

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