Week 6 Application Exercise

  1. Due to human activities, a lot of energy is produced at the Earth’s surface constituting, with the reflected energy from the sun, the radiated energy of the Earth. Part of this energy gets trapped in the atmosphere by the greenhouse effect gases. This molecules, enriched in energy, are spinning faster which implies a raise of temperature.

2. Due to global warming, climate change is more extreme such that hot days get hotter and cold days get colder. Colder winter is a sign of fluctuating temperatures due to global warming increasing the need for concern. Therefore the statement is incorrect.

3. Microwave radiation has lower frequency than infrared radiation. Since energy of photons, E = hf (h being the planck constant and f the vibrating frequency), the energy of microwave radiation photons is too lowe to trigger rotation of water molecules.

Unsuccessful because it caused too much heat and became microwave ovens. Not suitable as a radar device but suitable as a cooking oven.

http://www.zmescience.com/science/physics/microwave-oven-from-ww2/

4. In the short run, air quality causes health issues and affects productivity.

In the long run, we can slow down ozone depletion but not stop it as the chain reaction causes chlorine to be constantly produced. As a result, more UV-vis radiation will penetrate the atmosphere, causing skin cancer and more energy will be reflected. Aquatic life species would be affected by UV rays and there is a possibility of extinction which will lead to imbalance of our ecosystem.