20 Questions We've All Asked Ourselves (But Never Bothered To Find Out)

20. Why Is The Sky Blue?

We've all all asked ourselves this question at least once in our lives - why is that big thing hovering our heads coloured blue? Why is it not purple? Or Brown? Does God have something against those colours? He probably does, but that's not why it's blue. See, it's that way because of something called Rayleigh scattering, which is essentially when light arriving from the sun hits the molecules in the air and is scattered in all sorts of directions. The amount of scattering depends on the frequency of the light, or something, and blue light has a higher frequency than red, so therefore it's scattered ten times more, thus the light we see is blue. This can also explain why we see red during sunset, when the sun is low the light has to pass through more atmosphere on its way to us and is less susceptible to scattering, giving it an easier path to us. This is why the sky is often red, and why all the shepherds in the world are pretty happy with themselves with it happens, apparently. Of course, it's all a bit more in depth than that, but that's pretty much the gist of it.

19. Why Does Feeling Blue Mean Sad?

Hey now, why so blue? We're only just getting started, you'll have your answers soon. I know, this one has always confused us too, we've always quite liked blue. It carries so many connotations, for example; blue skies represent a nice clear day, plus it's also very cool and calming, which puts us in a right good mood. So where on earth did the term 'feeling blue' originate from? And why does it mean sad? Who's backwards idea was that? Does blue make you sad? I mean, really! Why not orange? Or indigo? No one appears to know the definitive answer, but the most convincing theory our eagle eyed researches found is from old Navy terminology, which was used by old deepwater sailing ships. The story goes that when a ship lost its captain or any officers during its voyage then the ship would fly a blue flag and paint the colour across the hull as it returned home. So there you go, still feeling blue now?