Carolina Global Warming - Manual (Page 5)

19
Heat Reservoirs
The features of a particular area of
Earth’s surface play an important role
in evaporation and cloud formation for
that area — for example, whether it
is covered by water or not, how much
vegetation there is, and the composi-
tion of the soil.
But Earth’s surface also has another
kind of impact on Earth’s climate. The
sun delivers heat to the Earth. Oceans,
seas, and rivers, as well as the land and
the air, absorb the sun’s warmth during
the day. The amount of sunlight that an
area of Earth’s surface absorbs is primar-
ily determined by its color. Dark objects
absorb more heat than light-colored
ones, because light-colored objects are
reflecting the light while dark-colored
ones are absorbing it.
An experiment with three different-
colored landscape disks will show that
different-colored bodies hold different
quantities of heat.
08–10
Experiments
Heat Absorption
• Materials from the kit: transparent
half-spheres, landscape disks (for-
est, ocean, ice), thermometer, stand
from the die-cut sheet (globe side up),
wooden stick
• Additional materials: tape, clay, tape,
lamp, watch
Procedure:
Place the green forest disk and the
white ice disk together back to back,
slide the wooden stick between them,
and secure the disks together with
pieces of tape to the left and right of
the wooden stick.
Lay the disks inside one half-sphere,
put the two half-spheres together, and
place the combined plastic sphere on
the globe stand.
Set the entire apparatus in the sun or
under a lamp (at least 60 watts) so that
the white ice side of the landscape disk
is illuminated directly. Push the ther-
mometer into the hole and seal it off
with a little clay. Seal off the hole on
the underside with clay too. Support
the end of the thermometer with some-
thing placed under it, e.g. books, or
by securing it with clay or tape
to a support like a glass or
block of wood.
1.
2.
Top side
Bottom side
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