Thermodynamics question.

[Thrawn]

Hi guys, I can't make heads or tails out of thermodynamics.  I've been reading about it all morning ,and it makes less sense now than it did at the beginning.

Anyways here's the question:

What's the total energy increase when you bring 5,000,000,000,000,000 tons of regular air, up from 0 degrees C to +2 degrees C?   What about 0 degrees C to .4 degress C.

Thanks.

[Maniac]

42

[midnight Target]

You want that in BTU's or kCal's?


(

[Thrawn]

Originally posted by midnight Target
You want that in BTU's or kCal's?


(

Honestly don't know, I was figuring joules?  I think there's some stuff regarding specific heat.  

[Tuomio]

Be careful with that air, it holds more power than one would think!

The absolute amount i cannot tell you, or i could, but then i'd have to kill you.

[midnight Target]

I'm 20+ years removed from that class........not a freakin clue actually

[SageFIN]

At your own risk, try Q = c * m * delta_t

[miko2d]

Specific Heat - the amount of heat (in Joules) required to raise the temperature of 1 (Kilo)gram of a substance by 1 degree Celsius (or Kelvin - same thing).

 The specific heat capacity for dry air is 1005 J/(kg K), for water vapor is 1850 J/(kg K) - so your mileage may vary according to humidity of air in question.

 1 Joule = 1 / 1054.35 BTU
 1 Joule = 0.239006 Calorie
 1 Joule is 1 watt second or 1/3,600,000 kWh

So your answer for one (1) degree Celsius increase would be at least:

5,000,000,000,000,000 tons x 1000 kg/ton x 1 degree x 1005 = 5,025,000,000,000,000,000,000 Joules

 That is 5,025 Million Trillion Joules or

 4.766 Million Trillion BTU
 1,200 Million Trillion Calories
 1.4 Thousand Trillion kWh

 Multiply that by number of degrees you need. Also, you may wish to check my calculations for any misplaced zeroes.

 Anyone knows conversion ratio of calories to megatonnes of TNT?

 miko

[Thrawn]

Originally posted by miko2d
Anyone knows conversion ratio of calories to megatonnes of TNT?

 miko

That was going to be my next question.

Thanks a million miko!:)

[Thrawn]

Mutliplying your number by 2 and putting it into this formula:

exg.  

18 GJ = 18 × 109 J × (1 × 106 tons TNT/4 × 1015 J)
the joules cancel, 109 × 106/1015 cancels leaving


= 18/4 tons of TNT
= 4.5 tons of TNT

I got this number:  251250000000 Tons of tnt.

2512500 Megatons.

Can someone comfirm this?


Edit: I'm beginning to scare the crap out of myself.

[midnight Target]

And Thrawn will refrain from melting the polar icecaps with his secret recipe' for.......................One Millllion Dollars!!!! Dum Dum Duuuuum!

[Thrawn]

Originally posted by midnight Target
And Thrawn will refrain from melting the polar icecaps with his secret recipe' for.......................One Millllion Dollars!!!! Dum Dum Duuuuum!

When I get the numbers confirmed I'll start another thead.  I think I'll title it "WE ARE ALL SO diddlyING DEAD!!!"

If the numbers are correct, I think the sea level will be least of our problems.  Weather is made by engery in the atmosphere, and add more water...well, you see where I'm going.

[miko2d]

1 Megaton TNT is apparently 4,500,000,000,000,000 Joules (4.5 x 10^15)

 So 5,025,000,000,000,000,000,000 Joules would be

50,250,000 / 4.5 = 11,166,667 Megatonn

 About eleven million megatonn per degree celcius for your air.

 What is so special about that amount of air? Is that the whole atmosphere?

 Whatever it is, do not panic. The amount of danger from energy depends greatly on the structure and other properties of the system. It may be deadly when diffuse or it may be deadly when concentrated.

 You can burn you finger with the match - at worst you will get a nasty burn that will bother you for a few weeks.
 If you apply exactly the same amount of energy to your finger as ionising radiation - gamma, alpha, neutrons - you will get pretty much the same burn that will heal in comparable time.
 But if you get the same amount of radiation evenly over your whole body, you will be dead in days or hours.
 Our organism deals much better with localised damage/death to the tissue then system-wide spread of tioxic radicals.

 On the other hand, the whole athmosphere may be able to store some extra energy with no noticeabole effects or even with greater stability.
 With increase in 2 degrees, the cloud cover would increase too. Besides having stabilising effect on temperature, it may actually reduce irregularity in energy absorbtion (by ground/ocean) and the weather could become less violent, not more!

 Local violence should concern you more then global effects when the weather is concerned - you are likely to be hurt by a thunderbolt or a flying cow rather then general increase of temperature by 2 degrees.
 Of course lack of sun causes significant increase in suicides, but those are most likely to be unstable individuals.

 As more water vapor makes its way up into the athmosphere, it will be more actively split into oxygen and hydrogen by cosmic radiation, with heavy oxygen staying down and light energetic hydrogen partially escaping into space. So the sea levels will go down! Granted, the process is not that fast, but apparently the Earth have already lost equivalent of about 6 meters (20 feet) of water over the whole surface.

 miko

[SirLoin]

Uh oh..What you planning to build Thrawny?...

[Thrawn]

Originally posted by SirLoin
Uh oh..What you planning to build Thrawny?...

Bomb shelter, heheh.

Over the past century, the atmospheric temperture of Earth has been raised by 1 degree C.  

.4 degree C. of that increase has happened in the past 25 years.

It is expect that the atmospheric temperature of Earth will increase by an additional 2 degrees C. over the next 16 years.

I need the numbers to do further research on the effects this temperature increase will have on weather and climate.

Edit: PS.  Thank you very much for the math, miko.  I really appreciate it.