How does sunset work

It turns toward the east. As the Earth rotates, different locations on Earth pass through the sun's light. The animation shows how that looks hour by hour for 4 hours. As your town turns toward the sun and begins to enter its light, the sun seems to rise in the east. As your town begins to leave the sun's light and enter darkness, it appears to set in the west.

November 6, Photo: Jeff Miller. Share via Facebook. Share via Twitter. As the Earth turns and the Sun crosses our visual horizon, the light from the bottom of the sun bends , creating the optical illusion of a fatter Sun.

Super cool effect. From a strictly light science standpoint, sunrises and sunsets are no different. That being said, they certainly can appear different in the moment, right? There are two reasons why sunrises and sunsets look different. First, the hustle and bustle of the day creates more airborne particles, which cause more scattering and diffusion of the light. This makes sunset colors appear more intense than they are at sunrise. Second, as we are making that bleary-eyed run for early-morning coffee, our eyes are dark-adjusted; they are used to the conditions of darkness.

This can make certain colors appear different than they would at sunset, when our eyes are light-adjusted. Light sure is neat! To get even deeper into cool sunset stuff, check out the green flash phenomenon hat tip to Dave for that. Wistia Culture. Should you use video in email? Like most things in marketing—it depends! Learn about five specific use cases for video Marketing Meisha Bochicchio. Great stories are the backbone of memorable and engaging podcasts.

Learn how to craft meaningful stories with these tips from This is why sunsets are often yellow, orange, and red. Materials provided by University of Wisconsin - Madison. Note: Content may be edited for style and length. Science News.

Scattering also explains the colors of the sunrise and sunset, Ackerman says. ScienceDaily, 15 November