The Greenhouse Effect

The Greenhouse Effect

Global Warming in a Beaker

BACKGROUND

The greenhouse effect

The greenhouse effect is a natural process that warms the Earth’s surface. When the Sun’s energy reaches the Earth’s atmosphere, some of it is reflected back to space and the rest is absorbed and re-radiated by greenhouse gases.

Greenhouse gases include water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone and some artificial chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).

The absorbed energy warms the atmosphere and the surface of the Earth. This process maintains the Earth’s temperature at around 33 degrees Celsius warmer than it would otherwise be, allowing life on Earth to exist.

The problem we now face is that human activities – particularly burning

Figure 3: LoggerPro Screenshot of temperatures in Beaker 1 (Part I)

Figure 3 shows how temperatures in Beaker 1 increase when the Lamp is on and how it decreases when it is off.

Figure 4: Diagram of temperatures in Beaker 2 (Part I)

As the temperature began to rise within the area under the heat lamps, so did the temperature within the Beaker 2 and vice versa as it is demonstrated in Figure 4.

PART II

The top of Beaker 1 and Beaker 2 were covered with a plastic wrap.

Figure 5: LoggerPro Screenshot of temperatures in Beaker 1 (Part II)

As shown is Figure 5, increase and decrease of temperatures behaves similarly as it does in Part I of this experiment.

Figure 6: Diagram of temperatures in Beaker 2 (Part II)

In the Part II of our experiment, Beaker 2 was covered with a plastic wrap and Figure 6 shows some oscillations of temperatures in that area.

PROCESSING DATA

PART I The effect of a Plastic Cover Beaker 1 Temperature (°C)

Beaker 2 Temperature (°C)

Temperature Difference

0 Minute 24.1

23.1

1

5 Minute 27.4

27.9

0.5

10 Minute 26

25

1

15 Minute

Beaker 2 cooled by 2.9°C (from 27.9°C to 25°C) and temperature in Beaker 1 fell by 1.9°C (from 29.9°C to 28°C). The cause of this result is the plastic wrap which did not allow the temperature to cool down quickly.

In the second part of this experiment, greenhouse gasses were introduced to Beaker 1 by exhaled air. The exhaled air contained Carbon dioxide (CO2) and water vapor (H20).

When Part II ended, one cardinal problem was noticed. The lamp which provided the light was defective; it was more focused towards Beaker 2. This could be related to less accuracy of following results.

The thermometer showed that in Part II, Beaker 1 with greenhouse gasses warmed slower than Beaker 2. Hence, Beaker 1 also cooled slower than Beaker 2. Comparing results from Part I and Part II demonstrates how Beaker 1 cooled faster in Part II when it contained GHG than in Part I.

Additional outlier which could be related to the results is wobble of the beakers which occurred at some point while Part II was in realization. This outlier may had an impact in a way that it caused the temperature to drop. Outlier has a negative effect on the data and it generates fall out of the general