Difference between revisions of "Bad vibrations"
(Created page with "== Bad vibrations? A brief explanation of the heat trapping properties of CO<sub>2</sub> ==") |
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− | + | = Bad vibrations? A brief explanation of the heat trapping properties of CO<sub>2</sub> = | |
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+ | ''I'm pickin' up good vibrations'' | ||
+ | ''She's giving me the excitations'' | ||
+ | ''Brian Wilson / Mike Love / The Beach Boys'' | ||
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+ | == Basic mechanism for the absorption of radiation == | ||
+ | |||
+ | When radiation (visible light, infra red, ultra violet …) impacts an atom or a molecule, if the frequency of that radiation matches the natural resonant frequency of the molcule energy it is momentarily absorbed, 'exciting' the molecule into a higher energy state. After a short time the same amount of energy is re-radiated and the molecule returns to its normal or 'ground' state. Although the radiation is only 'borrowed' this capture/release is nevertheless an absorption mechanism, because the re-radiation occurs in a '''random''' direction so in the simplified 1-dimensional case there would be a 50% probability the radiation were sent back in the direction it came from. It can be understood that for a sufficiently deep and concentrated layer of molecules, this scattering and attenuation could amount to absorption. |
Revision as of 10:36, 3 December 2019
Bad vibrations? A brief explanation of the heat trapping properties of CO2
I'm pickin' up good vibrations She's giving me the excitations Brian Wilson / Mike Love / The Beach Boys
Basic mechanism for the absorption of radiation
When radiation (visible light, infra red, ultra violet …) impacts an atom or a molecule, if the frequency of that radiation matches the natural resonant frequency of the molcule energy it is momentarily absorbed, 'exciting' the molecule into a higher energy state. After a short time the same amount of energy is re-radiated and the molecule returns to its normal or 'ground' state. Although the radiation is only 'borrowed' this capture/release is nevertheless an absorption mechanism, because the re-radiation occurs in a random direction so in the simplified 1-dimensional case there would be a 50% probability the radiation were sent back in the direction it came from. It can be understood that for a sufficiently deep and concentrated layer of molecules, this scattering and attenuation could amount to absorption.