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Why is it colder in high elevations? (think about it)

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Key West said:
If anything, it should be hotter as we're closer to the sun.

I was temporarily satisfied with an explanation that due to heat radiation off of the ground, it's colder at mountain peaks and higher grounds.

But after traveling midwest where the plateau altitude is a constant 4000 feet for hundreds of miles, it's still freaking cold up there. So that debunks my prior belief.

So.. why?
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Let's explode your mind some more, we get frost in the valley and none on the hillsides.
 
PV-nRT.jpg
 
dighn said:
if you keep moving up then you'll reach the sun, where it becomes hot again

*head asplode*
Click to expand...

So heat increases with increasing gravity. Therefore gravitrons possess heat. Therefore the expression "going at it hot and heavy" actually makes sense.
 
destrekor said:
Originally Posted by Gibsons
space is cold. The earth is warm. Moving up means you move away from the warmth.

but... but... in space you might be closer to the sun!!!!
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Space is not cold nor hot. It is just an empty vacuum, hence a perfect insulator.
 
IronWing said:
Prove it.
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Your body temperature remain constant in perfect empty space if there is no star near by to radiate energy toward you, or behind (in the shadow) of a large object. The difficulty would be over heating rather than cold because your body would have a hard time at losing heat with out an atmosphere. Only if you survive in empty space long enough to experience such occurrent.
 
iGas said:
Your body temperature remain constant in perfect empty space if there is no star near by to radiate energy toward you, or behind (in the shadow) of a large object. The difficulty would be over heating rather than cold because your body would have a hard time at losing heat with out an atmosphere. Only if you survive in empty space long enough to experience such occurrent.
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http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/970603.html
 
Sometimes it's not. Here in Colorado, a wind from the east sometimes blows pools of cold air up against the mountains and even up into them some distance. When the wind stops or resumes from the west, the cold air flows down the river valleys like water. :awe:
 
iGas said:
Your body temperature remain constant in perfect empty space if there is no star near by to radiate energy toward you, or behind (in the shadow) of a large object. The difficulty would be over heating rather than cold because your body would have a hard time at losing heat with out an atmosphere. Only if you survive in empty space long enough to experience such occurrent.
Click to expand...

True, except you do radiate heat as a black body. (roughly race independent)
 
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