Do fish sleep
Nine-year-old Lina from Aqaba wants to know whether fish sleep with their eyes open. Dana calls a marine biologist at the Red Sea, learns some surprising answers, and sets a bedtime observation challe…
Why is the sky blue and the sunset orange
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Show notes
The question that named the show
Yousef is seven, lives in Irbid, and wanted to know why the sky is blue in the day and orange at night when the sun is the same sun. Dana explains scattering without a single equation, and shows a kitchen experiment that recreates both colours in a glass.
- What sunlight is made of, and why white is all the colours together
- How air bounces blue light around more than red
- Why the long path at sunset leaves only orange
- The torch, water and milk experiment, step by step
- Yousef's follow-up question, which stumped Dana
Next week: do fish sleep, asked by Lina, age nine.
Transcript
Hello, hello, and welcome to Why Is The Sky. My name is Dana Khalil, I am a science teacher in Amman, and this is a show where children ask the questions and I do my best to answer them honestly. Today's question comes from Yousef, who is seven and lives in Irbid, and it is the question that gave this show its name. Why is the sky blue, and why does it turn orange when the sun goes down, when it is the same sun. Yousef, that is a brilliant question, and the answer is about light bouncing around in the air like a ball in a crowded room. We will talk it through, then we will make a tiny sky in a glass of water with a torch and a drop of milk. Go and find a grown-up. You are listening on Witspeak Podcasts.
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