Why is it hotter the lower you go and colder the higher you go, Doesn't heat rise?

Answer 1

in a closed room, it's colder next to the ground than next to the ceiling, so I assume you're talking about heights of several kilometers, in the open air...

That's easy, really: open space is cold if you don't heat it up. The thing heating up the air is the ground because it's what's receiving the light from the sun and converting it to heat. The farthest you are from the ground, the colder it will get (until you get high enough to start and "feel" the heat from the ozon layer, which coverts to heat some wavelengths of the solar radiation)

Answer 2

As with some gases, a small amount of heat can't make them rise, so the heat itself would rise, without the gas. Consequently, heat only flows through a medium when the medium has just the right absorbency. So at a level at which the air is very thin, the heat will not be able to easily go through. However, if the period of heating is extreme in its temperature, or just excessively long, the lower air that is sufficiently heated to rise up will do that, and heat the thinner air in the process.

Answer 3

Because the lower you go, the closer to the molten metal core of the earth you get. The higher you go, the less there is to absorb the radiant heat of the sun, so it feels cold. But direct sunlight, even in space, is apparently quite a lot hotter than it is here on earth. Astronauts say that the temperature difference between shadow and light is quite extreme.

Answer 4

The previous poster, who mentioned air pressure, nailed it. The more pressure, the more heat, generally. At sea level, we have the whole atmosphere as a blanket. At higher levels, we're on top of the blanket, so to speak.

Answer 5

heat rises when it is in say a room

in the atmosphere, heat is produced as sunlight hits the ground - the heat is not actually sent all the way through the atmosphere of the earth to ground level - it is emitted from the ground up. the heat then rises up and out of the atmosphere because of pressure.

Answer 6

It is only like that on the top half of the earth, on the bottom half its hotter as you go up, Its because the eqautor (Line that splits the earth in half). And the closer you are to the eqauter the closer you are to the sun.

Answer 7

Air at high altitude is less dense and holds less heat...
An example of density & heat might be....
130 degree air will not hurt you..
130 degree water can kill you..

Answer 8

It does but if you're asking geographically then it's different.