Blue Sky Thinking
In search of answers
Olivia stood, staring at her mother and wearing a questioning face. “Mummy, why is the sky blue?”
“Oh, something to do with particles,” said her mother not looking up from her paper.
“What are particles, Mummy”.
“I’m very busy darling, go ask daddy,” said her mother whilst waving a dismissive hand.
Olivia trotted off towards the kitchen, where she found her father cooking. “Daddy, what are particles?”
“There are tiny, small things darling.” her father replied in a sing-song voice.
“Are they blue?”
“I suppose they can be all sorts of colours,” he replied.
“Are they what makes the sky blue?” Her questioning continued.
“Well…I’m not sure. I know, why don’t you ask Suzie, she’s doing science in school,” said her father.
Ever obedient Olivia went in search of her sister. Climbing the stairs she found Suzie studying in her bedroom.
“Suzie, are there tiny, small blue things in the sky,” questioned Olivia.
“What like bugs?” Said Suzie looking up from her book and wrinkling her brow in confusion.
“Yes, really small blue bugs and is that why the sky is blue?”
“No,” said Suzie with a superior air, “the sky is blue because of the particles in the atmosphere and how the light from the sun gets scattered, the scattering increases as the wavelength of light decreases so of course, blue light is scattered more than red light and the sky appears blue.” And with that Suzie resumed her studies.
Olivia stood wide-eyed at Suzie’s explanation and then silently retreated, returning to her playhouse where her toys were lined up.
“I’ve got the answer for you,” she said, “it’s quite simple really, it’s blue because of all the tiny, small blue bugs in the sky”.
Olivia imagined all her toys nodding in agreement and felt happy in their company.
I hope you enjoyed this, feel free to check out my other stories and leave some feedback.
Thank you to Zane Dickens and Paul Mansfield for the prompt.
Tell us a story, tiny in height but tall in heart.
