PHYSICS C10 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Thermal Expansion
Document Summary
Consensus on climate change: it is known that increased greenhouse gases are causing global warming. The ipcc consensus is that there is a 90% probability that this increase in greenhouse gases over the past 50 years is caused by humans. Greenhouse effect: visible and uv light get through to ground. Uv light causes the ground to emit infrared light, which is trapped by clouds. However, some infrared light leaks out, so the temperature stops increasing after a point. Ice cores: composition of the atmosphere can be determined by analyzing layers of sediment, can get data from thousands of years ago. Rise of sea level: sea level has been rising for the past century. However, the melting of ice in the ocean is causing none of that rise. The rise is caused by the thermal expansion of water due to temperature rise.
