if heat rises how do we feel the heat from the sun on earth?

Answer 1

Because the energy from the sun is not heat, but rather radiant energy, while the heat that rises is thermal energy.

Answer 2

Your asking two questions. First, heat does rise, when it is a parcel of air that has been heated. Heat can be in a number of forms, and not 'rise', so I think what you are asking is how we experience heat.

Energy from the sun arrives at earth predominantly at a higher frequency than what you feel as heat. We still feel radiated heat from the sun, but most of the atmospheric warming is actually the surface of the earth 'heating up'. Which is actually just a transfer of energy from high wavelength to lower 'heat' wavelength. This is then transferred to the air which rises to its equilibrium height.

So, the way we feel heat from the sun is direct radiation (like a sunburn at the beach), conduction (stepping on hot sand), and convection which is the surfaced warmed atmosphere around you.

Answer 3

What you feel is the radiation from the sun. That heats the earth, the ground heats up making it hot. The air is heated also, and so it is hotter at sea-level than at other altitudes because there is less air to be heated at higher altitudes. The heat is also dispersed over a wide area and leaks out into space.

It also takes a while for the ground to heat up, which is why it is always hottest in August after two months of summer have already gone by.

Answer 4

There are 3 modes of heat transfer
Conduction - like a frying pan
Convection - like hot air rising
Radiation - (which is the only mode that works in a vacuum) like the sun' energy through space

On a sunny day, you feel the radiant heat from the sun.

Answer 5

The Sun is made of mostly Hydrogen. One nucleaus with One electron spinning around it. The immense nuclear reactions taking place in the sun force photons or positively charged particles to rush away from the sun. This is radiant energy. These photons wisk thru our atmosphere and strike the solid earth and ocean water. The Earth and Oceans absorb this energy. A little bit at a time but continually and constantly collect this energy. This energy is stored at the surface because there is alot of matter at the surface. The atmosphere is made of relatively LESS matter and therefore collect LESS energy. Heat does not RISE, it is PUSHED UP by cooler air below it. Picture air in a plastic milk bottle with the cap screwed on tight. A molecule of air is moving FAST and strikes the sides of the milk bottle occasionally (air pressure). IF you take the milk bottle and put it under HOT HOT water, the air inside the bottle will Heat up. As air heats up, it gets more energy and the molecules inside the bottle SPEED UP VERY VERY FAST. Since the molecules are moving very very very fast, they hit the sides of the container VERY VERY VERY OFTEN. So the pressure increases and the bottle swells up. If you take the milk bottle and shove it in the freezer. Wait about 10 minutes and take it out. The air inside the bottle gets cold, loses energy and the molecules inside the bottle slow way down. The molecules slow down and don't hit the side of the bottle very often. So the air pressure is LOWER. The bottle sometimes caves in a little bit! Try it. This proves that COLD air takes up LESS SPACE or SHRINKS and is MORE COMPACT and is MORE DENSE than HOT air. Hot air expands and tries to take up more space and is less dense and is less compact. COLD AIR is compact like a rock and weighs MORE per given cube inch of the stuff. HOT air is loose and not compact and light and weighs LESS than cold air. The cold air sinks like a stone because it is more dense. When the stone cold air sinks due to gravity, the warm air is pushed up. Unfortunately, this warm air stays very close to the ground due to gravity. As one climbs higher and higher into the atmosphere, there is less and less air molecules. Since there are less molecules to "capture" the suns photons, then there is less energy aloft and therefore less "temperature" ...it is cold. As one climbs the temperature decreases approximately 2 degrees celcius per 1000 feet climb. This temperature decrease continues until the Stratosphere..and then the temperature starts increasing again. The heating is caused by an ozone layer that absorbs solar ultraviolet radiation, heating the upper layers of the stratosphere.

Answer 6

Heat rises yes but it has to come from somewhere. As the solar rays hit something heat energy is transfered to what ever it hits. Be it an air molecule or the ground or water. What ever it hits is now warmer. Air will rise as it gets warmer, but the ground and Water can not so by transferring its energy to things around it other atoms will get warmer. If this happens to you so you will feel warmer. But only the warm air rises.

Answer 7

Sunlight heats the ground and the water (the ocean especially), which then radiate heat back into the atmosphere. In (nearly) empty space, there is very little to absorb light and other radiation from the Sun until the light and other radiation hits, say, our little planet.

Answer 8

To answer as briefly as possible...

Heat rises on Earth because of gravity. Heating something generally decreases its density. So hot air sits on top of cold air, same as hot water sits on top of cold water.

The sun radiates energy across space, which heats our atmosphere and the surface of the Earth. Thats how we feel it.

Answer 9

it's not heat that rises, but hot air. Heat just radiates in all directions - so it also comes from the sun.

Answer 10

the suns rays heat up the earths surface and its this rising heat we feel. its cooler in winter because the rays of the sun have fruther to travel and dissipate into the atmosphere before reaching the part of earth that is furtherest away from it.