Become a Geophysicist - Part 2

When I was a kid, we had on tv Mr. Physics, or Mr. Wizard, or whatever.  The point is that it was all hard science that could hurt you.  They had lots of kids on the show who lapped up dangerous stuff.  Not like now, with nighscience that's so wishy-washy that nobody gets offended.

Now we are talking heat flow which starts with the obnoxious kid putting the flame to Mr. Wizards lab coat.  "Why does it burn you when you touch something hot?"  the smart-ass kid says.  "I'll show you some physics!" Mr. Wiz says bunching up his fists.  CUT!  The kid was later found dangling upside down from a window.  You just don't get that now, kids are so important, yada yada.

So, on your way to be Geophysicist #1, you've got to wrap your mind around heat energy.  When your rotten kid leaves the door wide open in the winter, you don't yell "Close the door, you're letting the cold in."  You say "Close the damn door, you're letting all the heat energy out."  Big diff.

If you leave the door open, you are losing heat energy by convection.  The warm air molecules are bunched less densely, and they float out the door.  Cold air comes in to take it's place.

Your house also loses heat through radiation, or the generation of infra-red light.  Also there is conduction, which is your basement wall warming the earth around it.  Most heat in a house is lost by air leaks, so get new windows.  The important thing is to not sweat the small stuff, and go for main thing (10 times more than the others).

For heat energy, you have lots of energetic molecules vibrating in a solid, liquid, or gas, and it wants to get out and burn someone.

The Earth is just like that, but someone has left the door wide open at the boundary of air and outer space.  Since the air can't move any farther out, all that heat is lost with radiation.  We would be a cooked goose if we weren't polluting outer space with lots of infra-red, and microwave energy.

--to be continued.

--actually, this isn't gaining any traction, and it's all about influencing an audience, and getting money.  End of series.  blah.