Question

When the "full" moon rises, the color is yellowish while its color directly overhead is white. Why?

Answer 1

Given:

The full moon rises, and the color is yellowish while its color directly overhead is white.

To find:

the reason

Explanation:

The moon only reflects the sunlight as it has no own light. The sunlight is composed of white light. When the moon rises, the light looks yellowish as it passes through more of Earth's atmosphere than the atmosphere when the moon is overhead. As it travels a longer path, more of the shorter, bluer wavelengths of light are scattered away, leaving more of the longer, redder wavelengths. This is the reason when the moon rises; the color is yellowish.