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I live in a high altitude area. It gets very hot. People will say that it's because we're "closer to the sun" as if the ~6000ft/~1800m difference is what matters vs the 93,000,000mi/150,000,000km distance to the sun is affected by something so small.
The difference is the lack of atmosphere to soften the various types of light from the sun.
It works if you include the amount of matter the sun radiation has to pass through in your distance measure.
I like that and it's probably the right metric tbh. But in terms of just linear distance it makes my blood itch lmao
Yeah, better to say "It's closer to the end of the Earth's atmosphere".
And then there's a debate about where the "end of the Earth's atmosphere" lies.
That doesn't sound pedantic or pointless at all. That just sounds like pointing out something really, really stupid.
Like that guy who was afraid too many people on an island would cause it to tip over. Like it was floating or something, and not just higher ground.
So not to be pendantic (lol), but this is the definition of a pendant:
noun noun: pedant; plural noun: pedants
With pedantic of course meaning acting in that way. I feel like pointing out my technical knowledge is unnecessary in the grand scheme of things but even if I try to let it go my brain will hang on to it until I tell them, even if that is much later on.
That said, hopefully it's not pointless to share!
That feels like the "you know we're tired because of all the tryptophan in the turkey" debate.
Are you sure?
You sure it's not because you just ate 4 lbs of food in the middle of an afternoon on a day off?
Yes! That's another one for sure. I personally can let that one go however. But as for heat, I have studied it formally and something about makes me need to fix the misinformation.
I thought that higher altitude invariably meant colder temperatures? Like how mountains are capped with snow just at the top? The lack of atmosphere means less heat, not more? explain like I'm 5 please
Super tall mountains do stay snow-capped but that starts at elevation roughly double of where I live.
So that is true in terms of convection heat. Aka the sun gets the air hot, then the air gets you hot. When you're in the shade, this is how you feel heat in high altitude. At sea level this is also mostly how you feel heat.
The difference is radiation heat. When you're in the thinner atmosphere you get more UV light and it heats you directly. UV can also penetrate skin a certain amount so it heats you inside too. You also burn super fast up high.
You can't expect scientific nuance from most people. They think in Lies to Children and remember the middle school eclipse demonstration with the lightbulb and rubber ball and that's about it.
Logically I know that of course.
Friendly reminder, this is specifically a thread about petty and pedantic topics. I self-nominated as pedantic here.
Oh and I both respect and encourage your pedantry, I'm in no way trying to dissuade you from your noble battle, just pointing out that your struggle will be against people who have zero grasp of the concept of albedo and are irrationally proud about that.