Science (086) — AI-generated practice question

At sunrise and sunset, sunlight travels a longer path through the atmosphere. Most of the shorter wavelengths (blue, violet) are scattered away, leaving mainly red and orange light to reach our eyes, making the Sun appear reddish.

At noon, sunlight travels the shortest path through the atmosphere, so very little scattering occurs and the Sun appears white or yellow-white.

Source: Chapter 10, Section 10.6.2 – Scattering of Light

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• The key concept is differential scattering: shorter wavelengths (blue/violet) scatter more than longer wavelengths (red/orange).
• At sunrise/sunset → longer atmospheric path → more blue scattered away → red dominates.
• At noon → shortest path → least scattering → nearly all colours reach us → white/yellow-white.
• Examiners expect you to explicitly mention path length and scattering of shorter wavelengths for both marks.