Re: population growth & physics ed

[David Dockstader <DRDOCK00@UKCC.UKY.EDU>]

Mike
I think you have ignored removal of the heat and just assumed it collected
in the atmosphere.  The heat produced by are cars is really trivial compared
to solar radiation.  I think that the amount of solar energy that falls on
the earth in a single day is roughly equal to the energy stored in all the
fossil fuels of the world.

On Wed, 17 Jul 1996 09:20:52 -0400 (EDT) Michael N. Monce said:
> 	I had a thought on this whole CO2 warming linkage a few months
> ago (while teaching thermo of course).  My idea was that warming may be
> due to heat load on the atmosphere from simply driving cars, rather than
> CO2 emissions.  The central idea I had was that when one uses a gallon of
> gas, then energy of combustion is entirely dumped into the atmosphere,
> not just what comes out the tailpipe.  Excess thermal energy is dumped to
> the atmosphere by the radiator, and the kinetic energy of the car is
> eventually dissipated also to the atmosphere through brake friction.  In
> other words, the entire energy of a gallon of gas ends up in the atmosphere.
>
> 	I did a back of the envelope calculation after looking up the
> total consumption of gasoline and using the heat of combustion.  Then
> using the approximate volume of the atmosphere I came up with .5 degree C
> delta T per year.  I felt this was significant, and though I haven't
> checked it, I wouldn;t be surprised if the curve of gasoline consumption
> and accompanying delta T has the same shape as the global warming curve.
>
> 	I haven't pursued this more, and would like to know where the
> flaws in my thinking are.
>
> 					
> 				Mike Monce
> 				Connecticut College