Rayleigh Scattering Frequency Law

The scattering of electromagnetic radiation by bound electrons can be modeled using a classical harmonic oscillator. At low frequencies compared to the resonance frequency, this model reproduces Rayleigh scattering, which explains the blue color of the sky.

Experiment

You can use the interactive module to explore the relationship between the full response and the Rayleigh approximation across different frequency regimes.

1. Set the Frequency ratio to 0.1 and observe the close match between the full response and the approximation.
2. Increase the Frequency ratio to 1 (resonance) and observe the massive divergence caused by the damping term dominating the denominator.
3. Change the Damping ratio to see how it affects the peak height at resonance without significantly changing the low-frequency behavior.

Explore this in the module: Rayleigh Scattering Frequency Law