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[–] 1 point 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (4 children)

Actually that's us seeing light.

Edit: specifically, the light wavelength that remains at passing through the atmosphere. We're but seeing the air still, we're just seeing the color that makes it through to us. Saying that's the air itself would be like saying you see the cities filtration system by looking at the clean water that comes from a faucet.

A better example of actually seeing air would be to freeze it, and seeing the literal frozen air.

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  • [–] 15 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Light bouncing off of air molecules, yes. That's how seeing things works

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Do you see your own eyes? Like without a mirror

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  • [–] 6 points 10 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (1 child)

    I was extremely baked when I asked that but I think it was a question about how some light will reflect off your eye into your eye therefore you're seeing your own eyes.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago*

    Responding to your edit:

    You've got it the wrong way around. What you see at sunset, the reds and yellows, that's the sunlight being filtered because those wavelengths make it through stronger. Your argument would hold there, if we do not count seeing filtered light as "seeing" the filtering material. (Although even that I'd question - if you hold a colored piece of glass against a light source so it's entirely backlit, would you say you're not seeing it?)

    But the blue sky is not that. It is the air molecules being illuminated by light coming from somewhere else, and bouncing that light back into your eyes, with a bias towards blue wavelengths. If that does not count as "seeing" air, then you also can't actually "see" fog, it's the same mechanism.

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