Monday, September 21, 2009

there's 300 times as much water as there is air

Ran across this on Slashdot by RobVB (1566105) It's just too interesting to let pass by.

The total mass of the oceans [hypertextbook.com] is about 1.4*10^21 kg. The total mass of the atmosphere [hypertextbook.com] is about 5*10^18 kg. That means the oceans weigh about 300 times as much as the atmosphere.

The heat capacity of water [npl.co.uk] is about 4000 J * kg ^ -1 * K ^ -1. The heat capacity of air [engineeringtoolbox.com] is about 1 kJ * kg ^ -1 * K ^ -1, or about 1000 J * kg ^ -1 * K ^ -1.

So since there's 300 times as much water as there is air, and the heat capacity of water is 4 times larger, heating up the atmosphere by 1200 degree Celsius would take the same amount of energy as heating up the oceans by 1 degree Celsius. This may not prove or disprove your point, I just started thinking about numbers when you said "raising the temperature of a body of water by a few degrees".


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