This was asked by my 12 year old daughter while we were driving through the mountains the other day. It was 90° for several hours of our trip, then we reached the Blue Ridge mountains and the temperature dropped about 10 degrees. Seemed to happen once we reached about 2500 feet above sea level. I rather clumsily tried to give her an answer about air at higher altitudes being less dense, but quickly realized I didn’t have all the facts. Hoping someone can help me explain it better, so I can break it down better and explain it to my daughter.
In: Physics
Lots of people think the sun heats the air directly. It doesn’t. The sun heats the ground, then the ground heats the air, and the air acts like a blanket to the coldness of space. As you go higher up, the air gets thinner. Thinner air means a thinner blanket and colder temperatures. Hope this helps!
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