Why doesn't everything freeze naturally?
since cold is molecules slowing, why things naturally tend to get colder? What creates the cycle of things keeping other things at “room temperature”?
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Everything does freeze naturally, in space. The earth is constantly receiving energy from the sun, which keeps the earth nice and warm for the most part.
For more detailed information, look up Thermodynamics . What you’re asking is what processes create thermal equilibrium in a system (an open system in this case). I wish I had a good simple way to explain it.
@xyzzy Awesome job of deducing what the questioner meant!
xyzzy is exactly right. The earth and it’s atmosphere is what is known as an open system, meaning that it receives a constant inflow of energy from the sun (and a tiny bit of matter from cosmic dust and meteors). Luckily we have an atmosphere that traps just about the right amount of energy (in the form of heat) for water to exist in the liquid phase, which is in large part what makes Earth a habitable planet.
Certainly, if the sun turned off or if our atmosphere disappeared, we would lose our source of energy/heat and “room temperature” would drop rapidly and dramatically and everything would tend to get colder. Luckily those things won’t be happening any time soon! On the other hand, Earth’s atmosphere recently gained properties that allow it to trap more heat, meaning that “room temperature” is slowly rising. Because heat is a form of energy, the system is able to contain more energy – this is the reason for increased storm intensity associated with climate change.
And some heat is produced internally in the planet. But the sun provides a majority of the heat felt on the surface.
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Wow, @schenectandy, you’re vehement. Please, though, try not to hold back so much. Let it out sometimes :)
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| asked May 14th, 2008
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