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 Originally Posted by OngBonga
Interesting. So a single photon fired through a lens will show evidence of refraction?
Yes. Each photon interacts individually.
A single photon passing close to an atom or molecule will show evidence of refraction.
A single photon passing close to any edge will refract.
Observe: the sky is blue.
This is because the atmosphere is mostly Nitrogen molecules. The size of diatomic Nitrogen is such that it refracts violet to blue light far more than green through red light.
Since blue light is scattered, it bounces around the sky and seems to come from all angles... the sky looks blue.
The sun looks yellow because the blue light is spread throughout the whole sky, while the green, yellow, orange, red light tend to move straight through the atmosphere.
The sun is white... it just looks yellow in our atmosphere.
At sunset, you view the sun through more atmosphere, and the fact that the more reddish colors are also refracting through the atmosphere is evident. It just takes more atmosphere. If our sky was thicker, it would be a different color.
If you've ever been up a mountain and noticed the sky seemed more blue, or even indigo, that's because the atmosphere is thinner.
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