What is the greenhouse effect?
Hey. Hey.
Melissa:I'm Melissa.
Jam:I'm Jam.
Melissa:And I'm a chemist.
Jam:And I'm not.
Melissa:And welcome to chemistry free life.
Jam:The podcast helps you understand the chemistry of your everyday life.
Melissa:Okay, Jam. Are you ready to hear today's episode? I mean, I guess if
Jam:you're not, I would just have to leave. Yeah. That's a good point. Yeah. I guess so.
Jam:Why not? Let's do it.
Melissa:Okay. So it's kind of in keeping with our summer theme, and it's in keeping with our carbonation episode that we just did.
Jam:Okay. Rereleased?
Melissa:Rereleased, yeah, last week.
Jam:Nice.
Melissa:So today's episode is about why our cars get so hot in the summer.
Jam:Okay. I wonder if some folks living in other climates will be like, That sounds awful, and, yeah, it is.
Melissa:It is really awful. I think it can get up to, like, very hot. Yeah. That's
Jam:what I've heard anyway.
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:In terms of the numbers, it feels very, very hot.
Melissa:Yeah. It I'm a never
Jam:really been like, I wonder exactly how hot it is.
Melissa:Exactly how hot. Yeah. I and it's it's a nice phenomenon when it's cold outside.
Jam:That's right. Right.
Melissa:But it's measurable when it's hot outside.
Jam:Yep. 100%.
Melissa:How hot can a car get in the summer in Texas? I just I'm looking it up right now.
Jam:I'm gonna bet 120.
Melissa:It says the National Weather Service says a dark dashboard can reach temperatures between a 180 and 200 degrees.
Jam:That's crazy, but I wonder about the the, like, environment of the car. You know what I mean? Like Yeah. The air that we are in.
Melissa:The air itself.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:After 10 minutes, the interior car temperature is 20 degrees hotter than the outside.
Jam:Wow. Golly.
Melissa:Yeah. This is just from random. You know? I don't know this. I'm just reading it off Google.
Jam:But Yeah.
Melissa:And after an hour, it's 34 degrees hotter. Oh, in 95 degree weather, the interior of your car will be a 129 degrees in just half an hour.
Jam:Wow.
Melissa:Yeah. And if it's a100, it'd be closer to 134.
Jam:And that's why the local nonprofit that you and I both know about is doing a fundraising campaign specifically trying to help people with their ACs for their cars.
Melissa:Oh, I didn't know people are doing that. Yeah. It is miserable. I had a broken AC one summer, and it was not.
Jam:Yeah. It was so sweaty. Yep.
Melissa:Everything you did. It was actually cooler to ride my bike to work
Jam:Yep.
Melissa:Because there was, like, wind.
Jam:Yeah. Yes.
Melissa:You could feel the wind.
Jam:100%.
Melissa:So we're gonna talk about why that happens. I'm guessing you have a guess as to why that Mhmm. What's your guess?
Jam:Okay. I feel like The verbiage greenhouse effect could apply?
Melissa:Yes. Yeah. It does. It could apply. That is the verbiage.
Melissa:Do you know what the greenhouse effect actually is and why it is?
Jam:Sort of.
Melissa:Okay.
Jam:So I feel like the effect is essentially that conditions exist because, obviously, you could have this with a literal greenhouse, which is where it comes from or whatever, or a planet like Venus or a plane like Howard or a car.
Melissa:I'm impressed you knew that about Venus just off the top of your head.
Jam:Oh, that's because I'm a space nerd. So
Melissa:Cute.
Jam:I remember all the space stuff. Every space thing I've ever heard. I'm just kidding.
Melissa:I just found out about Venus in my research, or, like, was reminded of it Yeah. In my research for this episode. So
Jam:I remember being, like Like, I think one of my teachers asked the question, like, which planet do you think is the hottest? And everyone was like, Mercury. They're like, nope. It's Venus because It retains all the the heap of a lot. I'm tired of all that stuff, so I've remembered that forever.
Jam:So it's the conditions exist somehow that Energy from the sun that is able to enter a space of some kind and somehow not leave as easily as it enters.
Melissa:Yep.
Jam:So, like, With planets, we talk about it as as a as gas and atmosphere is what creates those conditions and certain gases that, like, Make that the case. That's part that I don't know the specifics of or whatever. But in a car, I feel like It's like it's got lots of windows. Mhmm. Obviously, it's cars have darker interiors.
Jam:And even if the the Windshield is tinted and stuff like that. It's like the sun is very hot, and it's this confined space where The air getting warmer, but there's no way for the air to, like, easily leave Yeah. And just continue kind of, like, getting back to What's that word you use? Equilibrium? Yeah.
Jam:Like, it would if it was just the open air, like we talked about with different, like, weather systems and stuff that happening, and sometimes they're They're trying to get back to equilibrium or whatever. In the case of the car, it's like they're it's trapped stuck that way. And as long as the sun's still beaming down, it's just gonna keep happening to a point, but I don't know how to describe it deeper than that.
Melissa:Yeah. That is exactly what I was hoping. You would kind of Have the idea that somehow light was getting in and heating things up and not able to get out, but maybe not know really how or why that Happen.
Jam:Yeah. It's it's
Melissa:Yeah. Because I think a lot of us hear, oh, our car heats up, and it's because of the greenhouse effect, and somehow And you're right. It being in a car, there's other factors than it just being, you know, a literal greenhouse.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:And it's not just the gas that's in play. There's dashboards and interiors. Right. So we're gonna talk about all of that.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:And, actually, frustratingly, There was not a lot of talk about actually cars from scientific sources. Uh-huh. So I am using I just always like to be upfront. I'm using a lot of information and and extrapolating it and applying it to cars as a chemist.
Jam:Got it.
Melissa:So this is my chemistry mind taking information about the greenhouse effect and applying it in other situations.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:Okay. So your overview was pretty good. Inside of a car, there's air. Uh-huh. And that air has, well, I guess what I'm gonna say, first, I'm gonna, you know, sort of recap your overview with a little extra details.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:And then I'm gonna go into some deeper chemistry that I actually learned more about for this episode.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:Okay. So, Yes. In your car, you have air, and the main molecules in our regular old atmosphere are nitrogen, oxygen, Argon and c o two, and then also water vapor.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:And So these molecules are moving around. Right? And as things get hotter, molecules move around more and more. So as you put energy either in Heat or light form. The molecules have more energy to move around.
Melissa:Think before we've likened it to children who get sugar.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:It's like you're Fueling them to be able to move around more. Right. You know? And those kids are gonna get hotter and hotter because they're, you know, putting out all this energy. It's similar with molecules as they move around more, and we can we kind of perceive that energy as heat.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:Similar to when you heat up Water molecules on a pot, and eventually, they are trying to escape so much that they turn into gas because that's how much they're moving around.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:Okay. So, one thing also though that I wanna review is when it comes to light and other wavelengths, so like, visible light, ultraviolet light, infrared. The our molecules can absorb those, but only certain molecules can absorb certain amounts certain wavelengths of light. We've talked about that before.
Jam:Right. Right.
Melissa:So some things absorb in the UV region, like some of the sun Screens that we use absorb UV light
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:Or, we talked about how UVC light, most of that is absorbed by oxygen, like, before it even gets to us. Right.
Jam:That's
Melissa:why we like the ozone. You know? Mhmm. So some but other gases maybe can't absorb in that region. So that's a little fact I wanna remind you of.
Melissa:So you've got all these in your car. And when you leave your car in the sun, There is energy coming through those windows in the form of waves, and they're absorbed by the molecules in the air, which makes them move more around.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:And the same thing is happening to the molecules in the air outside of the car, but like you said, they're trapped.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:So because all these moving molecules I mean, I don't think cars are perfectly airtight, but they're mostly airtight. There's not a lot of escaping. So because of that, the air inside the car, they can't those molecules can't escape, and so they just, Yeah. Sort of build the temperature in.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:So and it probably is actually because molecules like to reach this equilibrium. It is likely trying to get the heat out, and so it is probably dissipating. Your car is dissipating heat into the air around it
Jam:Right.
Melissa:It's not at the same rate that it's taking in more energy. Right.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:So that's why, You know, if you touch the like, even your, like, window
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:You have a car that's hot. It's it's hot. It's trying to get the energy out into the surrounding area that's cooler.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:But it's just not able to do that at the same rate.
Jam:Right. Right. Right.
Melissa:So that's, like, your 500 feet overview of of kind of why it's hot hotter in a car, but there's a lot of little details that don't get touched on in that. Okay. So also also just a friendly, you know, side reminder that UV light does go through cars, and so you should wear sunscreen in the car. So windows and those, for some reason, I could think windscreen, which I think is what they call it in Europe. Yeah.
Melissa:Windshields. Uh-huh. But also windows in your house, they're letting UV light in. Right. So still wear sunscreen even, like, on cloudy days.
Melissa:You
Jam:know? Yeah.
Melissa:We that's my side note of, get on the sunscreen train for me. But, anyway
Jam:I've definitely when I was commuting a lot, it was possible for me to for my arm to get sunburned. Yep. But most time, I'm not driving where the sun is actually entering straight to the front. It's more like through the side Yeah. That, you know, would happen or at least not my face because you're gonna block it if it's gonna be right in your eyes in some way.
Jam:But, I would be like, what happened to my arm? Like, I don't I wasn't outside. And I'd be like, oh, right. It's my arm that I have on the armrest in the car. I don't
Melissa:know if we've talked about this on the podcast before, but have you ever seen that picture of that trucker? He, like, drives trucks, I think, for a living. Uh-huh. He drives something for a living. And so, you know, he's going one way in The day and the you know, so the left side of his face is always the one being exposed to the sun.
Melissa:Right.
Jam:He's already sitting on the same side of the car. Yeah.
Melissa:Side of the car, and, The sun damage on the left side versus the right side is insane.
Jam:That's crazy.
Melissa:Like, he looks probably 10 years younger on one side of his face than the other.
Jam:That is crazy.
Melissa:Okay. So that was a side note. But, yes, this energy is IR, infrared, visible, and UV light is entering Bring into your car. So you also are getting UV light. So wear sunscreen if you're gonna be in the car all day.
Melissa:It's the same as being outside
Jam:all day. Right.
Melissa:Or close, I guess. You have some protection. Okay. So the greenhouse effect, like you said, typically focuses on energy from the sun. But a little piece that you missed is energy from the sun is, you know, put into our atmosphere in terms of, UV light and, visible light and some infrared light, and then also some of that energy is absorbed by the Earth.
Melissa:So think about, like, How sand gets hotter
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:And then lets that back off.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:And usually when it absorbs and reemits light, it may do that at wavelength. So infrared wavelengths are different than UV wavelengths, for example.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So a lot of the lights absorbed and readmitted by the Earth is infrared light, and that is the focus of the greenhouse gas Effect is infrared light. K. And I I tried to find out why UV light was not talked about in many of these resources, and it was really hard to find that. And my suspicion is that, the way these molecules absorb infrared is slightly different, like, How they let the energy back off. So we'll circle back around to UV invisible light.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:But for now, I'm gonna focus on infrared. So infrared light is a reemitted by the Earth.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:So there's this wavelength of infrared coming out of our Earth, And they can only be absorbed by certain molecules including carbon dioxide and water. Okay. And when carbon dioxide and water absorb this infrared light, they reemit that light or that energy in the form of heat, actually. So they're wiggling around, bouncing around. They're now they're hitting other molecules, and then the energy transfers from them to those other molecules.
Melissa:And so they can absorb infrared light and then let it off into other molecules and go back down to their relaxed state and then absorb infrared light again
Jam:And then let it off and go back into that
Melissa:relaxed state. And so even though there's a relatively small percentage of carbon dioxide and water vapor in our atmosphere and in our cars Mhmm. They are repeating this cycle of absorbing infrared light
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:And then Letting it off into these other molecules that don't absorb infrared light. So they're able to take in the energy that's let out, and it's just heating and heating and heating.
Jam:Got it. Got it. Okay. Yeah. That makes sense.
Jam:They're like an importer. It's like, yeah, I've got the connections. I can import the goods, and then I could distribute it around And I country I live in, and
Melissa:then I can enforce more? And they
Jam:do it over
Melissa:and over and over again. Okay. So I didn't realize that nitrogen and oxygen weren't really being Heated. And so, 1 American Chemical Society video I watched, it went really in-depth. And I think if, we have chemistry Big chemistry nerds, they would like this video.
Melissa:Uh-huh. It's from the American Chemical Society, and he talked about how there's an experiment where if you have Just a box of regular, regular I think his he had nitrogen, oxygen in a glass box. It wouldn't heat up at all.
Jam:K.
Melissa:And then if you have carbon dioxide in a glass box, it'd heat up a lot.
Jam:Oh, interesting.
Melissa:And if you have, like, a mixture, it would sort of be in the middle, I think.
Jam:Yeah. So Wow. That's great, David. It's like a clear it gives you a clear answer, though. I didn't think about that, but, like, putting specific gases in a box and having it be as pure as possible And seeing how different they respond to to taking in infrared and or not taking it in in case of oxygen.
Jam:That's crazy. Wow. So the so I guess I
Melissa:was interested that nitrogen, oxygen weren't really being heated. I assumed they're being heated because I know they can take in UV light. That's something we're gonna circle back around
Jam:to. Right. Okay.
Melissa:But so, really, the carbon dioxide and the water in your car are the reasons that you that your car gets so hot in the gas phase.
Jam:So if you could say when you left your car, you had, like, a little hose through the window. You could somehow, like, pump it full of some other gas and displace All the c o two and h two o Mhmm. The water vapor in the air, you could that'd be a lot of trouble. Not worth it. But if you did do that, it would Reasonably decrease the heat that your car
Melissa:I think it would decrease the heat, but because your car isn't actually a glass box, I don't think it would completely solve the problem. Right. And here's where we circle back to UV and visible light.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So, and nitrogen do absorb some UV light. Uh-huh. But we they none of the gases really absorb visible light at
Jam:all. Okay.
Melissa:But you know what does absorb visible light?
Jam:The solid materials?
Melissa:Solid Anything with color, really.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:And so I think that there's an added element in our cars where we have The UV well, the visible light coming through our windshield and being absorbed not by the gas Mhmm. But by by all the solids in the vehicle that have colors.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:And they even though they don't move around like a gaseous molecule, like, To the extent, they still are vibrating and and wiggling around more. Molecules are moving even in solids.
Jam:Totally. Totally.
Melissa:So I think This is where I'm extrapolating a little. The visible light contributes to the heating of our cars because those solid surfaces absorb heat and put that They're absorbing light and putting it off as heat into the car, also heating up those gases. Totally. Yep. Another level.
Jam:And we've all experienced that too. It's like it's different to a lesser degree, but, like, if you were to put your hand right near the desk but not quite touch it.
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:You'd already be feeling that heat. Right? So we know that that the air molecules right near there are being heated Yeah. By proximity. So, of course, it's contributing.
Melissa:Yes.
Jam:But that's interesting. It's like you wouldn't think of it as probably being quite as significant, but it's like, no. We feel it. And we know that how objects we just get host of them, and we feel it Yeah. It's because the they're they're transferring the excitement.
Melissa:And I think we mostly think about it as the greenhouse effect, but the greenhouse effect is The gas is absorbing the infrared. Okay. And in this case, it's sort of like the greenhouse effect is part of it, but also I think just the natural Absorption of visible light
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:By objects that then reemit that as heat is contributing also. So it's not Yeah. Just the greenhouse effect, I don't think.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:And I tried to find information on that, and I couldn't.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:And the other thing I tried to find information on, the greenhouse all the resources on it really focus on the absorption of infrared light. Like I said Mhmm. They do not talk about UV light, which is absorbed by oxygen and nitrogen both.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:And I think that's because the way that they must absorb and then reemit the energy might not be as heat.
Jam:Oh, I see.
Melissa:But I really can confirm that, and I I'm kind of worried that there's a basic chemistry idea that I'm just, like, not thinking of.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:But I couldn't find a good reason for why we don't talk about the movement of oxygen nitrogen as Part of the greenhouse gas effect. I know they're not absorbing infrared light
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:But I don't know why you're not talking about that UV component. Yeah. And I know a lot of UV rays are blocked, You know, by the ozone layer. They're not all getting to us because of the oxygen in the atmosphere, but there are definitely some getting to us because that's what damages our skin.
Jam:Yep.
Melissa:So that's odd to me. Yeah. But I couldn't find an answer. I tried really hard, I couldn't. I it occurred to me, actually.
Melissa:I had written up this episode about the greenhouse effect and the visible light, and I was like, wait. Are we talking about UV light? Yeah. And so I tried to find an answer, but I couldn't find one that was satisfying to me. So that's a question that if somebody else has the answer, I'd Love to hear it.
Melissa:Yeah. But I also think it you know, UV light does break down plastics and other things. We've talked about that before, and it can be the reason things fade.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:And so I think that also the solids in your car are likely absorbing UV light and reemitting that as energy as well Right. As heat energy.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:So I don't think that infrared light is the only reason for our cars heating up. I don't think we can only say It's the greenhouse gases. I think maybe the greenhouse effect of air being trapped in a space. Sure.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:But the, Scientific version of greenhouse gas which is infrared light being absorbed and trapped in a space, heating it up. I think we also have to think about the visible light and the UV light and how that's heating up the solid surfaces, which are then putting the energy back into the air as well. Yeah. And that's why your car is so stinking hot in
Jam:the summer. Man, guys, if y'all have not experienced a Texas or just the South or wherever you may live if you're not in a really warm climate, this warm for part of the year, Gosh. Trust us. It's it's a special experience of opening your car door and being met with this, like, Wave.
Melissa:It's like opening your oven.
Jam:Yep.
Melissa:It sounds like we're exaggerating, but it's literally like opening an oven when you're already really hot.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:My sister-in-law was visiting one time, and, she's from Indiana. So it gets hot there, but not as much so for as long as it does fix, of course. And she was visiting us, and then they're leaving, and they walked outside. And and she just did this, like, like, audible, like, feeling, but how hot it was outside? And she goes, Like walking into a hot mouth.
Jam:Oh, gross.
Melissa:I was like,
Jam:oh, it was also very humid at the time, so that's why that extra level of, Scripter is there, but, I was like, oh my gosh. That's disgusting, but also what a perfect phrase. Yeah. And now I can't stop thinking about that. But it feels like, Climbing into a hot mouse.
Melissa:Mouth is really gross.
Jam:Yep. Sorry, guys.
Melissa:So well, then that's burning tarot mine now.
Jam:Yep.
Melissa:While you were talking about hot mouse mouses? Mouths. I did go to the National Weather Service and look how fast can a car you know, can the sun heat a car. Uh-huh. And it does say that if it's only, 73 degrees.
Melissa:It can hit 73 degrees Fahrenheit. Uh-huh. It can hit a 100 degrees inside the car within 25 minutes.
Jam:Wow.
Melissa:So that is wild to me. And it does say a dark dashboard or seats can reach 180 to 200 degrees Fahrenheit, and 200 degrees Fahrenheit is 93 degrees Celsius. Is close to boiling water.
Jam:Wow. Yeah. That's crazy. And it didn't make sense like, oh, yeah. Putting those reflector things in your windshield or whatever Mhmm.
Jam:Or just park on the shade if you can. Yep. Makes, like, an insane amount of difference. But yeah. Wow.
Jam:That's crazy.
Melissa:Yeah. The reflectors really help. I always kinda thought they were it's like more trouble than they were worth, but Mason always puts his up, I'm like,
Jam:He's one of the people I know who does that really, consistently. I He
Melissa:takes really good care of his stuff.
Jam:We never really did that Growing up, I never had them, so I never got them to happen. And I didn't have anybody around me who who was. But now that I have kids, I'm like, I probably should get one of those because when you you say you're in the store and you go back out of the car, It's like, oh, I gotta start this car and let it get some air circulating for a couple minutes before I put these poor kids in there, and maybe having the reflective thing would help it be Not as bad. So maybe I should maybe I should just do it.
Melissa:There is a really cool graph on the National Weather Service on the website that I'm on, where it kind of shows you like, oh, if it's 93 degrees outside and it's, you know, 60 minutes in the car, it can get up to a 130 Fahrenheit, even a 140 for the air temperature Fahrenheit, which would be, I think, In the eighties Celsius. Let's see. A 140 Fahrenheit to Celsius. Oh, 60 degrees Celsius.
Jam:Okay. So Wow.
Melissa:Wild. Right?
Jam:Yeah. It's wild.
Melissa:In just 1 hour.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:For real. I was also like, well, if water vapor makes it worse, does that mean having, like, a cup cup of water in your car
Jam:could Oh, man.
Melissa:Make the temperature worse. I'd and and would it be worse on hue more humid days too?
Jam:Right. Right. Yeah. I That's crazy to think about.
Melissa:But, also, I think water absorbs heat more slowly. Like, it takes more heat to raise the temperature of water, so who knows? It just contributes to the absorption of infrared light. Right. So, hopefully, that helps you know a little bit more about what the greenhouse effect Literally is.
Melissa:It's all about that infrared light that's actually some of it comes from the sun. Some of it's reabsorbed from Like, absorbed and readmitted from the earth
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:And taken in only by certain molecules, which is why we call those the greenhouse gases
Jam:Yes.
Melissa:Not by oxygen and nitrogen, and it has nothing to do with visible light, which because the gases aren't absorbing that.
Jam:Right. Right. Which is wild. That is wild. So I think I can take I think I can play it back to you using the analogy I already said, but getting a little bit more specific.
Melissa:Okay.
Jam:There whenever I think about importers, I specifically, this Intersects with my life, for the most part, with coffee.
Melissa:Oh, yeah.
Jam:So, Melissa's husband, Mason, and I have the coffee business, and we have to would be a lot of trouble for us to try to import coffee ourselves from a farm in some other part of the world. We'd have to do a lot of, You know, customs stuff.
Melissa:You're basically not capable of it right now.
Jam:I am not capable of it. Yes. You could you could say that.
Melissa:You don't have the time or resources. Yeah.
Jam:And I yeah. And I literally don't know how, and it would not be worth it to for me to learn how because I, yeah, couldn't probably actually pull it off.
Melissa:Much like oxygen
Jam:Exactly. So there's specific companies that do this and have relationships with those farms that import The coffee, we only work with ones who also treat those farms very fairly Mhmm. And pay them very well for their coffee and for their hard work and their Their artistic approach and the care they put into all that stuff. Very important. So we There's only a handful of those places compared to how to people there are.
Jam:Right? And so we go to them to buy coffee that they have imported from the farm from the country. Similar to how if I was oxygen Mhmm. And I actually wanted some heat for some reason say say I wanted to be in a super hot car
Melissa:for some reason,
Jam:I would have to to to get that from CO 2 or water vapor in the air Mhmm. Or to put it back into the the the better way to say it. The infrared, the light coming in, which there's UV visible and infrared coming in Mhmm. The c o two and the water vapor actually can get excited Mhmm. By that infrared, And then they are then putting it out as heat.
Melissa:Yep.
Jam:Basically. They've imported it, and then they're distributing it. Mhmm. Other molecules around oxygen, nitrogen, whatever else could be in our air. You said something else.
Jam:Argon. Argon. Yeah. Good old Argon. Doesn't get enough credit in my opinion.
Jam:You know? It's in the air too. Okay?
Melissa:It is in the air too. It's actually a higher percentage. The percentages, if you don't think about water vapor, Argon is close to 1%, and carbon dioxide is only, like, 0.035.
Jam:Wow.
Melissa:It's such a small amount for having such a big effect.
Jam:That's crazy.
Melissa:But then there's also there can be varying amounts of water vapor.
Jam:Yeah. So they import it. They distribute it. The same thing happens with invisible light In the sense that things that have color and are solids Mhmm. Especially if they're darker, right, they are absorbing the visible light.
Jam:Yep. That they actually can take that energy, and they can redistribute it as heat Mhmm. To the Molecules that are kind of right around it
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:Which contributes, of course, especially if you got a big old dark colored dash. Yep. That's a lot of surface area that is probably making several degrees worth of difference.
Melissa:And then then it'll slowly redistribute that And reach equilibrium within the car as much as it can.
Jam:Right. Right. Which is wild. Which is wild. But the UV, Question mark.
Jam:We know the UV is entering the car, but we don't know to what degree it is contributing to the overall heat.
Melissa:We know the UV is entering the car that has oxygen and nitrogen in it which can absorb it, and I wonder if what it's doing to them. This is purely conjecture. So, you know, I didn't
Jam:Objection, your honor.
Melissa:It's possible that, You know, it's, breaking the bonds and creating oxygen radicals, but and maybe, you know, Whatever nitrogen too, but it's breaking bonds rather than them just, like, absorbing the energy and getting excited and rereleasing it. What I meant earlier when I said it's not re releasing it as heat.
Jam:Got it. Got it.
Melissa:Might, like, be taking it in and breaking up the oxygen and nitrogen.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:That's what I think. That is So conjecture, though.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:And I could not, like
Jam:But it does tell us, like, there are other options other than just Absorbing and reemitting is heat.
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:There's other things that could be happening
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:With yeah.
Melissa:And we talked about that some on the ozone episode and what the ozone does with light. But, yes, I'm not satisfied until I can I want somebody to tell me if that's for sure why it's not being taken into the, into the greenhouse effect or not, but that's my best guess as a chemist as to what's happening with the UV light? But I do think the UV light is also very likely heating the, The plastic dashboard, things like that. Yeah. I think that's taking in and either breaking bonds and making radicals and making it fade, Possibly also heating up.
Jam:So you couldn't find something about that specifically. What do you think the government's hiding?
Melissa:I think I didn't look It up actually probably in the best way. I think I think it's very likely that, you know, people are like, oh, well, UV light does this to oxygen, nitrogen, so that's not part of the equation. And I was trying to look it up in the context of the greenhouse gas specifically.
Jam:Right. Right.
Melissa:So I think that's probably why. Yeah. That's my guess.
Jam:Very specific use case. Like Yeah. That we you were trying to put these together for this thing. And it could be that this is talked about in the little Yeah. Yeah.
Jam:Makes sense.
Melissa:And I I was like, I don't know if our listeners will even think about the UV light, I think about the UV light. And we talk about the UV light entering your car and give you you know, damaging your skin. That's my best guess. I wish I had thought to look it up like that before. Kinda just occurred to me I can look it up in another fashion, but that's my best guess as a chemist.
Melissa:But this chemistry off the cuff, so Don't hold me to it.
Jam:That's I feel like there's, like, most that wasn't cuff, but just a little bit of cuff. Yeah. May yeah. Just a little bit of cuff. Yeah.
Melissa:So the UV light is is kind of our dark horse that we're like
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:What is the UV light doing? The oxygen, nitrogen, is it just breaking it up? Is it Doing is it doing something else? I don't know. So
Jam:Is it doing nothing? Is it, like, a huge player? Is it having a massive effect, but very secretly?
Melissa:Yeah. Now that I've thought about looking it up in a different way. I'll likely bring that out in our in our next week's q and r.
Jam:Nice. Excellent.
Melissa:But if anyone, You know, has any thoughts off the top of their head, give them to me. But, yeah, that's the greenhouse gas effect.
Jam:Interesting right away.
Melissa:Have a concrete I always guess I thought it was visible and probably UV. I never thought about infrared light.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:And it I never I mean, I knew where the greenhouse gases were, but I never really cared about it.
Jam:You're right. Right.
Melissa:Or how that was impacting getting in and out of my hot car.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah. It's one of the things where, like, there's there's other chemical, like, principles that we've talked about chemistry principles we talked about that I have And many of us have some basic understanding, and it does feel like it makes sense Mhmm. Even without us really knowing how it works under the hood. It's like this just I hear about this on these large scale things, but the earth and also, Venus or whatever.
Jam:And then I experienced it in these small scale versions, so I'm like, oh, yeah. Checks out. Makes sense. But I can't explain it to you, though. Yeah.
Jam:Exactly. Not deeply.
Melissa:Well, your explanation and your overview is good.
Jam:But it's like it's like I can only tell you that it happens and conditions that might create it, but not necessarily, like, what does it hinge on? Yeah. You know? Like, for instance, I would not have been able to guess about which gases it actually I could maybe guess c o two because that's the environmental
Melissa:one. Methane also is, contributes to
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:It absorbs infrared light. And I will say we always talk about, you know, oh, c o two in our atmosphere is gonna, You know, it causes climate change, blah blah. It does because we have too much of it. Yeah. But but without it at all, the estimate is that the Earth would be, like, negative 18 agrees.
Jam:So We need a little bit of it.
Melissa:It's good to it's good that we have it Yeah. But we don't need too much of a good thing. It's like sugar could bring joy and make you happy, but you don't need it all the time.
Jam:Right. Right. Yeah. And you definitely shouldn't breathe it. That's a good point.
Melissa:Shouldn't breathe sugar.
Jam:Yeah. And the methane thing, that's gonna affect some people's cars more than others. You know? Everybody has that friend.
Melissa:Oh, gosh. Okay. Moving on. Isn't it weird? This is just very off topic, but but cows Emits so much methane that that is, like, contributes to the greenhouse effect in in And our climate heating up.
Jam:I know. Every time I read something about that, I'm always like, that is insane.
Melissa:It's wild. Yep. It's, in case for anyone not tracking, Methane comes out also in flatulence.
Jam:Yes. Yep. Yeah. It's just I think it's honestly cow's way of getting back.
Melissa:Probably.
Jam:They're like, oh, okay. Well, how about this? Didn't expect this, did you?
Melissa:My husband grew up in Amarillo, and there's a lot of cattle near there.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:And it smells like manure if the wind's blowing the right way. Yep. I wonder if they think about the greenhouse effect whenever they smell that.
Jam:Yeah. Probably not.
Melissa:Probably not.
Jam:I bet it's I bet but you have higher priority worries in the moment.
Melissa:You know? My cousin did not go to a school out there, like, near Arlo because she said she couldn't live somewhere where it smells like cow manure that often.
Jam:Wow. Interesting.
Melissa:I know.
Jam:I was around a lot of cows as well growing up, and a friend of mine had a ranch with cows. So I was around it quite a bit. But if I was choosing, I would maybe I would think about it differently. But it was like, oh, it's just normal. I mean
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:People have animals out there. I'd rather smell that, honestly, than, like, when you pass like a like a oil refinery kind of place, something like that, where it's like a I don't know. Totally different smell. But Some of those I can handle better than others. You know?
Jam:My grandfather
Melissa:had some cattle too, but I feel like if you go to a farm and you're like, that's where the cattle are gonna be.
Jam:Then you're like, makes sense. I came to them.
Melissa:Yeah. Right. But when I would walk out the front door in Amarillo, and sometimes it smells like cow manure, it's always shocking to
Jam:Right. Right.
Melissa:Like, we're in the middle of the city, but it's not the same kinda city as Totally. Where I grew up.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Totally.
Melissa:So That's a little, little sidebar on manure for you and how cows affect the greenhouse. Okay. Well, thanks, Jam. Thanks for letting me go on that tangent, but also for learning about the greenhouse gas effect and why our cars get So hot in the summer.
Jam:Absolutely. Thanks for teaching me.
Melissa:Maybe instead of being frustrated when you get in the hot, sweaty car, you can be like, Chemistry. Now I know how this works.
Jam:Totally. Yes. Even if I feel bad in my body, at least my brain is stimulated by the Chemistry knowledge.
Melissa:Right. You know? Exactly.
Jam:And that could bring me a little bit of peace.
Melissa:Yeah. Me too. And I wouldn't have thought
Jam:the AC kicks in.
Melissa:You know? I wouldn't have even thought about this. I probably never would have researched it if it wasn't for this podcast. So thanks for thanks for listening and always wanting to learn about new chemistry topics and helping me I teach myself.
Jam:Anytime. I'll learn it and help you teach yourself by learning it from you. Anytime.
Melissa:Oh, I was about to wrap up the episode, but we didn't do our thing for this week.
Jam:Yeah. I was about to say something about that.
Melissa:Oh, okay. Well But I well, before we wrap up the episode, we can talk about our fun thing for week. K.
Jam:You wanna go first for me?
Melissa:I can go first.
Jam:Do it.
Melissa:Mason's, cousin is having a baby, and she was in town for a baby now is really fun
Jam:Nice. This weekend.
Melissa:And, and next weekend, my sister-in-law is also having A baby. Not next weekend. She's having a baby shower. So we've got lots of baby showers. And then in the middle, I'm kind of dressed up today because I got to go to And existing kids, his graduation.
Melissa:Nice. So we've had lots of fun, like, kind of family
Jam:And that kid's your nephew.
Melissa:Friends. That kid's my nephew. Yeah.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:So the nephew who's out of the womb, not the nephew who's in the womb that we're throwing the party for.
Jam:Right. Right.
Melissa:So, yeah, it's just been kind of like a fun family event. Like, yeah, just kind of a good time in my life right now where I'm getting to see people, and it's It's cute Yep. To go to a kid's graduation. It's fun to see, you know, babies new babies being prepared for and being born. So
Jam:Yes. Very cool. Very exciting.
Melissa:Just been a fun fun May so far. What about you?
Jam:Oh, let's see. You mentioned last time we recorded about that you and Mason watched the kids that 1 night. So I'm gonna go to date night. So I can't really share about that, but I was thinking That was one of my recent highlights, but,
Melissa:what think you'd said you would share more.
Jam:Okay. Maybe I will.
Melissa:Possibly. You were like, I'll share maybe more details on that next week.
Jam:Why don't I just do it then in that case? Because I guess they didn't hear our half. So,
Melissa:they just heard my half.
Jam:Right. So Melissa and Mason watched the kids for an evening, and then they decided they were gonna sleep in our guest room, which allowed us to basically be gone out as late as we wanted to. This was for, Our 8th anniversary. And it's kinda cool because anytime you're gonna do a date night, Even if you get a babysitter, you still always have an end time Mhmm. Unless your babysitter's, like, total night owl or cool people like Melissa Mason we're friends with, and it's not that weird and not that big a deal for them to just just sleep here.
Melissa:And we also don't have a house. So Yep. It's nice to be in a house every once in a while.
Jam:So that was kinda cool, and and I can't remember the last time that Emma and I got to just be out as late as we want to, other than the year before that where y'all watched the kids and
Melissa:the same thing.
Jam:Same thing. Or the kid at that point. And did the same that we actually stayed overnight somewhere else. And so this is just, out as late as we want, still come back here. And so we did a very, like I guess you could say very basic Date night, but, also, it was exactly what we wanted.
Melissa:It's basic for a reason.
Jam:Yeah. For a reason.
Melissa:Not bad.
Jam:It's not bad. I'm I'm not ashamed of it, but I'd like to ahead of that. Because if anyone's like, that's what they did, I'm like, yeah. And I'm not ashamed of it. Okay?
Jam:So, Em and I love Chang's. She used to live a lot a lot closer to one back in Indianapolis, and so we had to drive just a little bit to get to 1. And so we decided, let's do that for dinner. Mhmm. And we were even leaving the house until, like, what, 8 something?
Jam:It was pretty late. Yeah. We helped to get It
Melissa:was almost bedtime.
Jam:Right. Did we already get the kids fully down, or did y'all do that?
Melissa:We did that.
Jam:Okay. I can't remember. And then so we left it, like, 8 ish. Went and ate at P. F.
Jam:Chang's, then went and did mini golf, Which Jim and I love and have always loved. Cute. We we did that. We have fond memories of doing that at, like, various times and places on vacations, that kind of stuff. So we're just like, let's Let's do it.
Jam:And, and I won.
Melissa:I didn't know that. That's the only thing I learned that Oh, really? Is that you guys love mini golf. That's so cute.
Jam:Yeah. It's also great because Em and I are both not super competitive, and we also don't like competing against each other, really. Yeah. But mini golf is fun and playful enough? And even if you lose, you had fun or you should have.
Jam:If you didn't, you did this thing wrong. You you really messed up if you didn't have fun playing me out.
Melissa:It's low stakes.
Jam:Low stakes. We did that, and then we were debating about this the whole evening, like, whether we're gonna do this or not, whether we had enough energy or not. We went and saw the third guardians of the Galaxy movie, which came out that day, and neither of us knew that until we were already on the date. And we were, like, looking at things we could do. And so we literally did dinner, Mini golf movie.
Jam:Cute. The showing of the movie didn't start until, like, 11 something.
Melissa:Which is so bold.
Jam:Yeah. So bold. And as we got the snacks and stuff to to start walking toward the the the from the snack area to the theater, We were both like, we're so tired.
Melissa:We were like, why are we doing this?
Jam:Are we doing this? But it also has this feeling of, like, but we can. Yeah. So we did that.
Melissa:For context, we were going to sleep as they were walking in the movie. Yep. Yeah.
Jam:And we were, like, about 45 minutes away from our town. So, anyway, yep, we did all our stuff, came back, went to bed at, like, 2 AM or something like that. I don't even remember. Might have been a little later, actually.
Melissa:I think it was close to 3. Yeah.
Jam:And then the next morning, hung out with these guys and walked That
Melissa:was so fun.
Jam:Walked and got donuts and stuff like that. So, yeah, that was one of the most Recent cool, very fun, huge highlights. So thanks again. I think I think I thanked you last time, but thanks again to you and Mason for watching the kids.
Melissa:And I also got baby snuggles, which are really cute and fun and, like, good for your endorphins and dopamine because they're like, aw, look at these little babies. Yeah. So that was really fun and 2.
Jam:Yeah. And we get tons of those endorphins, so we can you can share them.
Melissa:Spare some. Yeah.
Jam:You need
Melissa:the kind of endorphins that come with the rush of staying out late.
Jam:Yes. Yes. Yes. Exactly.
Melissa:The rush of doing something somewhat irresponsible.
Jam:And it's like we already it's like the thing is too is, like, we already don't get Great sleep many nights of the week, but why not do it on our terms?
Melissa:You know? It's like
Jam:the kids are sometimes that caused that, but why not cause it on our own? Yeah. For fun.
Melissa:For fun.
Jam:So
Melissa:The the little rush of that. Well, I already thanked you so much and the listener so much. So I think with that, we can wrap up today's episode.
Jam:Let's do it. So Melissa and I have a lot of ideas for topics of chemistry in everyday life just like something as everyday, And in this case, unfortunate and uncomfortable as, car is getting hot in summer, but we wanna hear from you. So if you have ideas, questions, thoughts, whatever, Reach out to us on our website at kim for your life.com. That's kim, f o r, your life.com to share your thoughts and ideas. If you'd like to help us keep our show going and contribute to cover the cost of making it, go to patreon.com/chem for your life or tap the link in our show notes or the description to join our super cool community of patrons.
Jam:If you're not able to do that, you can still help us by subscribing on your favorite podcast app or on YouTube And rating and writing a review on Apple Podcasts because that stuff also really helps us to be able to share chemistry with even more people.
Melissa:This episode of Chemistry For Your Life was created by Melissa Coleenie and Jame Robinson. Jame Robinson is our producer, and this episode was made by our financial supporters over on Patreon. It seriously means so much to us that you all wanna help make chemistry accessible to even more people. Those supporters are Avishai B, Bree M, Brian K, Chris and Claire S, Chelsea B, Derek L, Emerson W, Hunter r, Jacob t, Christina g, Lynn s, Melissa p, Nicole c, Nelly s, Steven b, Shadow, Suzanne s, Timothy p, and Venus r. Thank you again for everything that you do to make chemistry for your life happen.
Jam:And if you'd like to learn more about today's chemistry lesson, you can check out the references for this episode in our show notes or in the description of the video.
Melissa:And that is where You can learn more about why carbon dioxide and water absorb in the infrared region when some other things don't.
Jam:Nice.
Melissa:Cool.
Jam:Yay chemistry.
Melissa:Yay
