I only found out about Rayleigh scattering recently. It's an interesting phenomenon. In essence, light from the sun is scattered on its way coming from the sun. We, with the way our eyes and nervous systems are oriented, perceive this distorted light as a blue sky.
So is the sky blue? There are other ways that it could be perceived, and the cause is something else. But yes. The sky is blue to us, and that counts for something.
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That the sky is blue isn't a subject we think about very often - as you say, it just is all of those shades that make up blue. Nevertheless, the article about Rayleigh scattering is interesting because it points out the reason and that isn't because the sea is blue either. In fact, I wonder what color the sea may really be?
It was Isaac Newton using a triangular prism in a darkened room who showed that when a narrow beam of sunlight passes through the prism it separates out into the colours of the rainbow. The fascinating thing was what he did aferwards - he put another prism uoside down in front of the first and the band of colors combined again into white sunlight.
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