Why is it called %26quot;Greenhouse Effect%26quot;?

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2 months ago

25 years or so ago we ate up the ozone layer ( with aerasol cans and gas emmissions) so we have no protection from the sun. Is this not a wrong analogy?

Best Answer

It%26#039;s called the %26quot;Greenhouse Effect%26quot; because it used to be believed that greenhouses stayed warm for the same reason: the visible light goes through the glass and is converted to infrared (heat) radiation, but the glass is opaque to infrared and so the greenhouse stays warm. That is why the Earth is warm, except instead of glass there are gases in the atmosphere (mainly water vapor and CO2) that absorb the outgoing heat radiation and send it back toward Earth. It%26#039;s actually not a good term for it, though, because it was found that greenhouses are warm for a different reason: they suppress convection that carries heat away. They figured this out in a clever way, they built greenhouses from salt, instead of glass, and they were just as warm, even though salt is transparent to infrared.

So greenhouses are NOT warm because of the greenhouse effect.

Asker's Rating:

Still a little hazy.You%26#039;re right it is not a good term.. it helped some. thx

Other Answers (10)

• The gasses form sort of a shield around the atmosphere, not allowing clean air to circulate. So that is almost like a glass shield around a bed of plants which we call greenhouse. The glass allows the sun rays to go through and because no air circulates the heat intensifies. It is the same with the gasses emitted into the air---they do not allow proper circulation of our atmosphere, but allow sun rays to go through and with that we get the greenhouse effect. Of course, this is just a very simplified explanation, the entire process of how the gasses form a layer around the earth is much more complicated....
• Greenhouses are used to grow plants, especially in the winter. Greenhouses work by trapping heat from the sun.
  The glass panels of the greenhouse let in light but keep heat from escaping. This causes the greenhouse to heat up, much like the inside of a car parked in sunlight, and keeps the plants warm enough to live in the winter.
  
  Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere behave much like the glass panes in a greenhouse.
  
  Without these gases, heat would escape back into space and Earth’s average temperature would be about 60ºF colder. Because of how they warm our world, these gases are referred to as greenhouse gases.
  and their impact, as the green house effect.
• Wrong !!! The ozone layer is at the edge if space. It is produced when the solar winds collide with the earth%26#039;s magnetic field. CFC are much too heavy ,there is no way it can got there. The beta particles are attracted to the north pole and makes it negative. The alpha particles are attracted to the south pole and make it positive. The differential between the poles supply the huge current that holds the O3 up there . O3 is not stable without the charge. When U fly a space craft through it U must turn off the high voltage or it will arc and burn something up..Do your research and U will find that the green house is not there.
• Because the effect is the same as that which keeps a greenhouse warm..Light from the sun comes in as, for example visible light, hits the ground/plants etc and gets converted to infrared light, which can%26#039;t pass out through the glass as easily as the visible light did....the heat gets trapped and keeps the greenhouse warm.
  
  The same thing allegedly happens with global warming, only instead of glass windows, its carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses that keep the heat in.
  
  Nikki? I don%26#039;t understand your comment. What did I say that you think is rubbish?
• it%26#039;s called the greenhouse effect because that happens in the atmosfere works the same way as a greenhouse.
  
  When you destroy the ozone layer, all the energy form the sun enters the atmosfere and the huge amount of CO2 doesn%26#039;t let the heat gets out, so it works like a greenhouse.
• Because in a greenhouse, the glass intensifies the heat, like the Greenhouse gases are doing to the Earth
• the effects of greenhouse must be good
• cato_ you do talk rubbish dont you
• named after the greeny people who made it up