Why is it colder up mountains?
Question
Why, when you go up a mountain and are closer to the sun, does the temperature go down, not up?
Simon, Bromley
Answer
** Definitive **
Name: Brad, Chiswick
Qualification:
Answer: It's because the radiation from the sun reacts with the atmosphere from the Earth, creating heat - it's an exothermic reaction. The sun would be cold in space, because there is no air for it to heat. As the air is thinner the higher up a mountain you go, the temperature drops.
** Joint definitive **
Name: Lloyd, Chadwell Heath
Qualification: Air conditioning enginerr
Answer: The higher the air pressure, the higher the temperature and vice versa. As the air pressure is so much thinner, the temperature is therefore lower.
** Even more definitive **
Name: Derek, Chiswick
Qualification: Degree in aero-nautical engineering
Answer: The sun's radiation is shortwave and the shortwave radiation is absorbed by the ground, which then heats the atmosphere. The most atmosphere there is, the warmer it gets.
Name: Eden, Finchley
Qualification: Knows how to repeat a question!
Answer: We are in an envelope, protected by the envelope. Every time you rise in the atmosphere, the temperature decreases about 1 degree every 300 metres. It's physics.
(James O'Brien: I don't think you've answered the question... you can't just say "It's physics"! Why does this happen?)