Community post
I Need a Science Nerds Help
I use heat in my house every year and heat rises. This is easily seen by my pellet stove in the basement which heats the entire house.
I want to do a little trivia and let the science guys school me in a way that is pleasant to read in place of looking up the answer online.
I have spent many springs, winters and falls in Colorado and I sit at the hot springs at the bottom of the mountain and almost year round I can see snow at the top of the mountain.
So if heat rises why the hell is it colder at the top of the mountain?
Maybe I am just not that smart but it makes me wonder. Can someone in the @steemstem Community answer this for me like I am of 5 year old intelligence.
I want to sound smart one night when I go out on a date or something, come on help me look good.
Please. I didn't mean offense calling you nerds.
Replies (12)
Hey! Thanks for your question. You can check a well-explained answer here.
Feel free to come back to me if you have any further question.
I was going to refer you to our discord channel link so that you can have a larger audience to answer you. But it seems @lemouth has already given you a link to an answer.
The center of the earth is at 3600 °C
The soil is at 8 °C
The space is at -272 °C
There is a gradient.
Yes, I could have done an internet search on my own. Can you tell me in your own words? And dumb it down for me?
I could have searched a link myself. I even said that in the post above. Do you have an answer that does not require me to leave this steemit page?
This tells the temperatures, which I am aware of. I am just trying to find an answer that reverses logic and plain world view of the facts in front of me without looking for a text book answer. This is why I did not do a google search for the answer.
Was just trying to help. You wanted the attention of steemstem meanwhile the vast majority of steemstem members are on the discord channel.
It was kind of you but I grow tired of everyone always directing people to leave Steemit to chat in another group somewhere else. This is the prime reason engagement on Steemit sucks, discord and selling votes.
Sure. Here you are. Feel free to come back to me if you want me to clarify further one or the other point.
First you are correct: heat rises. If you take this into account, this would mean that the atmosphere will become hotter and hotter with the altitude. However (yes there is a catch), this is not the only factor into the game.
Another factor is that gas get cooler when the pressure drops (basic thermodynamics). So, a bunch of air close to the ground as a huge amount of gas pushing on it (i.e. the atmosphere) so that the pressure is large. When the gas rises in altitude, a smaller and smaller fraction of the atmosphere pushes on it, so that the pressure drops. And with the drop of pressure, the temperature drops too.
However, all of these are by far not the dominant factor. Earth itself is. The planet absorbs heat from the Sun and radiates it back at the surface. The higher you are, the less important this effect is. As a result, air is warmer close to the surface of the planet.
PS: I am no nerd... ;)
So what kind of gas can I fill my house with to keep the heat on the lower levels? I hate to heat the attic for no reason.
I would have totally thought you would have said the equator is the main factor and where the mountain is located.
I am not sure you want to fill your house with anything else than air. You need to breathe somehow. You may instead want to isolate your house.
The location of the mountain also plays a role, but those are not amongst the main factors. I am not sure to understand the equator part of your sentence.
I understand. And I agree we need to boost discussions on steemit