Why air is invisible

This is in contrast to complex organic molecules with a lot of vibrational and rotational modes. Also, our eyes evolved to see in a range where air is transparent.

Simplistic answer: But it isn't invisible; it can bee seen from outside - just look at photos from the ISS or shuttle. It is just that the observer standing inside it doesn't see it unless something unusual occurs such as fire or fumes.

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Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Why is air invisible? Ask Question. Asked 10 years, 11 months ago. Active 4 years ago. Viewed 7k times. What about other gases and fumes which are visible? Improve this question. Manishearth Kit Kit 1, 1 1 gold badge 18 18 silver badges 26 26 bronze badges. Why is the sky blue? Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. Jerry Schirmer Jerry Schirmer The optical band fits neatly into a deep trough. Also, are those absorption peaks still valid when you go from liquid water to vapor, anyway?

Water clearly has very different optics from water vapor. I agree with you. I think that vapor and liquid have rough the same properties discounting droplets, which obviously have a macroscopic refractive behavior. Show 7 more comments. Omega Centauri Omega Centauri 2, 12 12 silver badges 10 10 bronze badges. Dmytry Dmytry 4 4 silver badges 7 7 bronze badges. Hermione Hermione 21 1 1 bronze badge.

Boy S Boy S 1, 13 13 silver badges 24 24 bronze badges. Not that you're wrong or anything, but I suspect the OP is looking for some micro-physics More Ask a Scientist: How do plants grow? For humans, the visible light spectrum lies between violet light with a wavelength of around nanometers and red light with a wavelength of around nanometers. But there are other types of light that we know of that we cannot see with our eyes, but we can detect.

Some examples would include X-rays wavelength of 10 nanometers , ultraviolet light wavelength of nanometers , and infrared light wavelength of over nanometers. Since our eyes can only see within a very narrow range on the color spectrum, anything that we are able to see must be reflecting light that fits within that range.

For air, it turns out that the colors that are able to be reflected do not lie in that visible range. If humans were capable of seeing those particular reflections, our field of vision would be constantly disrupted by the air in front of us.

This is no mere coincidence; instead, it is a product of how the human eye has evolved over time to ensure that our vision is not inherently hazy. Title: Ph. Research area: Computational physics, with a current specialization in the simulations of alloys.

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