It is also true that "black bodies" absorb a large percentage of incident light, while white objects reflect most of it away, which leads to black objects getting hotter more quickly in the sun, etc.
Just for fun, I thought I'd share another scientific theorem with the group.
Most techies are familiar with the equation:
Power = Work / Time
Now, using the well known relationships that Knowledge is Power, and Time is Money (knowledge = power and time = money), we get:
Knowledge = Work / Money
Solving for Money yields
Money = Work / Knowledge.
So, knowledge and money are inversely related, which explains why the capitalists have all the cash!
Brett
>>> through the atmosphere it undergoes elastic (Rayleigh) scattering.
>>>If all wavelengths were scattered equally then the sky would be simply
>>>a bright white; instead the scattering goes as the frequency of the
>>>light to the fourth power. What this means is that the blue end of
>>>the visible spectrum is scattered more than the red end resulting in
>>>a blue sky.
>>
>>Whoa. So, like, does this have to do with the chemical composition of
>>the atmosphere, i.e. the proportion of nitrogen to oxygen, or is this a
>>law of physics? If Neptune had clear skies, which apparently it doesn't
>>(pretty cloudy in the outer planets) would they be blue-shifted, too?
>>
>>-- Dennis
>
>--------------------
>
>Since this seems like an invitation to freefall into complete bullshit,
>here is an ad hoc explanation. The scattering factor, the fourth power
>term itself is a crude average determined by an estimate of the particle
>surface area, its reflective quality (elastic collision properties), in
>addition to the density of these per unit volume. I think physics
>politely refers to such terms as 'empirical constants', i.e. look 'n
>see guess :). The chemical composition itself maybe incidental to the
>surface characteristics and density. In other words particulates with
>different chemistry, lead to the same power term, if their surface has
>the similar physical characteristics. So, Mars for example has blue
>skies with little or no oxygen or nitrogen(?), but mostly CO2(?). But
>the same idea of surface character goes to explain the color properties
>of things, with scattering effects, reflected wave lengths or elastic
>collisions and those frequencies absoped or inelastic collisions, which
>is why black gets warmer in the sunlight than white.
>
>I don't suppose LBO is the proper forum to discuss the problems of dark
> matter, mean density, and the Hubble sphere? Hmm, guess not.
>
>Short form: don't open the air lock, just cause it looks pretty outside.
>
>Chuck Grimes