Astronomy
Astronomy
1st Edition
ISBN: 9781938168284
Author: Andrew Fraknoi; David Morrison; Sidney C. Wolff
Publisher: OpenStax
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Chapter 5, Problem 37E

The greenhouse effect can be explained easily if you understand the laws of blackbody radiation. A greenhouse gas blocks the transmission of infrared light. Given that the incoming light to Earth is sunlight with a characteristic temperature of 5800 K (which peaks in the visible part of the spectrum) and the outgoing light from Earth has a characteristic temperature of about 300 K (which peaks in the infrared part of the spectrum), explain how greenhouse gases cause Earth to warm up. As part of your answer, discuss that greenhouse gases block both incoming and outgoing infrared light. Explain why these two effects don’t simply cancel each other, leading to no net temperature change.

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The Sun has a radius of about 700,000 km and a surface temperature of 5800 K. Assuming it is a perfect blackbody (an emissivity of 1), what is the rate of energy radiated (in W) from the surface of the Sun? (Hint: the surface area of a sphere is 4πR2; enter your answer in scientific notation, 1.23E12 means 1.23 * 1012).
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Chapter 5 Solutions

Astronomy

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