Doris Marie Reed, age 14, of Princeton, La., for her question:

What makes the sunset pink?

The light from the sun must descend through the atmosphere before it reaches the ground. And the gaseous molecules from which the air is made tend to play tricks with sunlight. They bend and scatter certain of the colored rays blended in the white light of the sun. These colors are wavelengths of pulsing energy, some longer and some shorter than others.

When the shortest wavelengths are bent and scattered they color the sky with blue. The longer wavelengths become yellow and the longest become pink and rosy red. At noon the sunbeams travel straight down through the air by the shortest route and only the blue rays are scattered over the sky. In the Evening, when the sun is low, its beams slope in long and longer lines through the air. Some of the pink and red rays of light are bent and scattered to add their flaming colors to the sunset.