Tag: heat

The Reason the Earth Becomes Colder When Closest to the Sun

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The Earth orbits the Sun in an elliptical path, meaning the distance between each body constantly fluctuates. Perihelion is the specific point in this orbit at which the Earth is closest to the Sun with this phenomena occurring near January 3rd annually. In contrast to this, aphelion, is when the Sun is at its farthest distance from the Earth, which occurs in July each year. Interestingly and counterintuitively, the Earth is coldest during its perihelion phase (when the sun is closest to the Earth) and warmest during aphelion (when the sun is furthest from the Earth). This paradox occurs because of the struggle between orbital distance and the 23.5 degree axial tilt of the Earth. Whilst the Earth is slightly closer to the Sun during the perihelion phase in early January, receiving 6% – 7% more solar energy than in July, the Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun which forces sunlight to strike the Earth’s ground at a more shallow angle, therefore spreading the light over a larger surface area and filtering it through more of the atmosphere. This reduction in heat overrides the slight shift of the Earth and Sun being closer or further away, as it is the tilt of the Earth, not the orbital proximity of the Sun which dictates both the 4 seasons as well as the perihelion/aphelion paradox. It should be noted, global temperatures peak in July because the Northern Hemisphere Continental Crust heats more rapidly than the Southern Hemispheres oceans

How Armor Was Decorated During the Medieval Period

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Armor was embroidered during the Medieval period by using oil and lead paint to mark off ornate areas which would stand out and perhaps be decorated with gold or other precious metals in a process referred to as “gilding”. Gold does not easily bind to any type of metal and the only way to properly do so is to undergo a process which involves mixing the gold with mercury. Once applied, a mixture of salt, vinegar, and copper sulphate, which is root killer, makes a paste which eats through the metal leaving the painted parts untouched, and resulting in an etched piece of armor. Blacksmiths sometimes heat treated armor which turned it a blueish hue which essentially rusts the metal as it is referred to as an “oxide” and an oxide occurs when a metal comes into contact with oxygen which reacts with the metal and creates a deposit when heated to a very specific temperature, as the heat is what shifts the red color of rust to the blue area of the color spectrum

The Condition of the Earth After the Chicxulub Asteroid Collision Which Caused the Extinction of Dinosaurs

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Immediately after the Chicxulub Asteroid collided with the Earth, heat from the fireball produced reached temperatures of 5500 degrees Celsius and produced a shockwave which broke the speed of sound, causing gale force winds equivalent to a hurricane. Everything within 965 kilometers was instantly decimated. Within 11 minutes of impact, the sky began to darken as debris which had been pushed up into the atmosphere started to settle back down. As these small spheres the size of a grain of sand descended back down to Earth, they heated up upon re-entry, identical to that of an asteroid, which provided the illusion of billions of simultaneous shooting stars. The energy produced during this re-entry barrage of heat was more intense than the sun for a brief period of time and made the sky glow red, as if it was comprised of liquid magma. This debris reflected heat back towards the Earth and effectively caused the Earth to act as an enormous radiator. To add to this damage, wildfires began sprouting up due to the intense temperature which caused heat and smoke to fill the atmosphere, compounding the damage already done. Strong winds helped perpetuate these fires and because so much of the Earth was affected, it only took a few hours to become globalized, engulfing the entire Earth in a mass fire which burned hotter than a regular fire due to the inability to dissipate heat sideways. In addition to this, gypsum which contains sulphur, blocked the sun and cooled the Earth over the long term. Gypsum had a seismic effect upon the world’s oceanic ecosystems as ocean acidification occurred due to sulphuric rain being produced by the gypsum within the atmosphere. The reflecting of the sun caused 75% of all plants to die as the Earth only received as much light during mid day as what is present during a cloudy, moonless night of the modern day

The Advent of the Steam Engine Permanently Changing the World

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Scottish mechanical engineer James Watt taught himself engineering and at age 27 he invented the modern steam engine. Watt was inspired by a pot of tea which he observed boiling, as the lid of the kettle would move when excessive heat had built up. Watt realized from this encounter that steam power may have the ability to be harnessed to perform work. Building upon a design already in existence which used steam to drive a piston to pump water out of mining operations, Watt revolutionized this technology by adding gears and wheels. Early steam engines only pumped up and down, but after Watt discovered how to effectively implement wheels and other facets, he took the idea of steam power and made it transportable via rotary motion. This simple alternate design paved the way for countless machines which succeeded it, as gears and wheels allow an infinite number of combinations to be constructed allowing for adaptations to all forms of industry. The world became smaller and faster seemingly overnight as humans and animals were no longer required to perform all forms of work. Watts’ engine started the Industrial Revolution, one of the most important periods within human history as it nearly autonomously created the modern technological age

Civilizations Mastery of Metal By Manipulating Fire

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The more carbon rich a fuel is, the more heat it produces. Typical wood fires burn at 700 degrees Celsius, however 6000 years ago, ancient people discovered the adaptation of burning wood in a low oxygen environment, only partially burning, but in doing so creating a much purer carbon rich fuel; charcoal. Charcoal can burn at temperatures upwards of 1100 degrees Celsius, hot enough to melt ore out of rock. The mastering of metal produced tools, finance, and weaponry, forever changing the evolutionary story of human beings. By the Middle Ages, the production of charcoal for metal smelting and metal work was a major industry

The Reason Carbonated Drinks Become Flat

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Carbonated drinks are in a state of super saturation in respect to how much carbon dioxide they contain. Once a solution has reached complete saturation, it won’t allow any more of whatever substance is saturating it. If salt is added to a glass of water, eventually it will reach a point in which the salt just falls to the bottom rather than being dissolved in the water due to over saturation. If a solution is heated, it will be able to tolerate higher levels of saturation, and if it is cooled it is able to tolerate lesser levels of saturation. Carbonated drinks are water saturated with carbon dioxide, and this carbon dioxide is always looking for a method to escape which is why all carbonated drinks eventually turn flat provided enough time has passed. When sugar is added to a carbonated drink, the sugar nucleates the drink in that it provides a method of escape for the carbon dioxide present. Sugar, Mentos, and other various substances have a large surface area which allows a lot of carbon dioxide to become attached to it resulting in a rapid escape

Effects of the Atomic Bomb Dropped Upon Nagasaki, Japan During World War II

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The atomic bomb dropped upon Nagasaki, Japan on August 6, 1945 was detonated a few thousand feet above the ground as the bomb would have primarily been absorbed by the Earth if it were permitted to touch down. Because the detonation occurred within the air, the force of the first and second blast waves flattened everything within its path. The blast was so bright that atomic shadows were left from anything casting a shadow during the detonation as the light and heat which were the primary components given off during detonation, did not shine as brightly upon the shadows as they did upon everything else. For a few short seconds, the highly enriched uranium created temperatures of tens of millions of degrees Celsius, as if reaching into the core of the sun and dropping that power into the Earth’s atmosphere for a brief moment. The blast emitted was hot enough to melt and fuse anything in touched including granite, steel, iron, glass, clay, and tile

Dating Pottery Using Thermoluminescence

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The dating of pottery artifacts can be accurately performed by using a technique referred to as “thermoluminescence”. Thermoluminescence involves taking a small sample of an artifact of pottery and heating it up using doses of high energy radiation which creates excited electron states in crystalline materials like pottery. In some materials, these electron states are trapped or arrested for extended periods of time by a localized defect, or imperfection. In terms of the quantum world, these states are stationary states which have no formal time dependence, however they are not stable energetically and when the material is heated it enables these trapped energy states to interact with photons to rapidly decay into lower energy states, causing the emission of photons in the process. The photons are measured and dependent of how many escape, a specified measurement of the total age can be determined. This technique can be used on most minerals and is the only method available to provide exact dating in respect to pottery as the results yielded do not have to be compared against a comparison artifact. Certain minerals store energy from the sun at a known rate and this energy is lodged in the imperfect lattices of a mineral’s crystals. Heating these crystals when creating pottery empties the stored energy reserves, after which time the mineral begins absorbing energy again. Thermoluminescence dating is a matter of comparing the current energy stored in a crystal to what should be there had not pottery not been heated during the creation process thereby establishing a “last heated during” marker or date