Editing Talk:1818: Rayleigh Scattering

: If I do remember it correctly from my theoretical part of thesis about telepresence (so not exact domain, but I used good sources I think) the point behind why we see distant objects as bluish is: we see them colorless - maybe grayish - because the more the object is distant from us, the less reflected photons bounce into our eye. That means less energy of the radiation. As you may know, we have two sets of photoreceptor cells in the eye retina: one type for brightness perception (bacilli) and the other for multiple colors detection (coni). The later is active only in sufficient light conditions (photopic vision) - not in the dark. So that's why you don't see much colors in the night (scotopic vision) - not enough photonic energy gets into your eyes so only brightness is perceived. The same applies for the less energy from distant object photons - only brightness detected. So why it is it seems blue and not gray only? That is because bacilli cells are most sensitive to the blue color (500nm) contrariwise to the cone cells color sensitivity maximizes at green color (550nm). So the answer is bacilli cells are most sensitive to blue color, therefore the bacilli stimulus interpreted by our brain as blueish color, and only bacilli cells are active for low energy visual input - distant objects or in dark. Sources: sorry only in Czech language pdf-section 3.1.1: https://goo.gl/hOnWoi [[User:Gr4viton|Gr4viton]] ([[User talk:Gr4viton|talk]]) 06:59, 19 April 2017 (UTC)

: If I do remember it correctly from my theoretical part of thesis about telepresence (so not exact domain, but I used good sources I think) the point behind why we see distant objects as bluish is: we see them colorless - maybe grayish - because the more the object is distant from us, the less reflected photons bounce into our eye. That means less energy of the radiation. As you may know, we have two sets of photoreceptor cells in the eye retina: one type for brightness perception (bacilli) and the other for multiple colors detection (coni). The later is active only in sufficient light conditions (photopic vision) - not in the dark. So that's why you don't see much colors in the night (scotopic vision) - not enough photonic energy gets into your eyes so only brightness is perceived. The same applies for the less energy from distant object photons - only brightness detected. So why it is it seems blue and not gray only? That is because bacilli cells are most sensitive to the blue color (500nm) contrariwise to the cone cells color sensitivity maximizes at green color (550nm). So the answer is bacilli cells are most sensitive to blue color, therefore the bacilli stimulus interpreted by our brain as blueish color, and only bacilli cells are active for low energy visual input - distant objects or in dark. Sources: sorry only in Czech language pdf-section 3.1.1: https://goo.gl/hOnWoi [[User:Gr4viton|Gr4viton]] ([[User talk:Gr4viton|talk]]) 06:59, 19 April 2017 (UTC)

I received the 'rayleigh scattering' explanation myself, and it served me well. Even without knowing anything about quantum mechanics or how the human eye works, knowing that there's an optic principle at work other than simple pigmentation explains why the light is golden early and late in the day, and why dust or smoke can have such diverse effects on the colour of the light beaming down, especially at dusk and dawn.

I received the 'rayleigh scattering' explanation myself, and it served me well. Even without knowing anything about quantum mechanics or how the human eye works, knowing that there's an optic principle at work other than simple pigmentation explains why the light is golden early and late in the day, and why dust or smoke can have such diverse effects on the colour of the light beaming down, especially at dusk and dawn.