Always look for the most simple explanation.
How were temperatures measured in 1880?
Who measured temperatures in 1880?
How much training did these people have?
What did they measure temperatures with in 1880?
How accurate were these instruments in 1880?
Where did they measure the temperatures at in 1880?
Compare the above with today.
Think about things like the "heat island effect" and how much scientific instruments improved during the last 127 years.
2007-01-25 13:53:48
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answer #1
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answered by Yak Rider 7
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First lets define what a hypothesis is, a hypothesis is an educated guess or statement based on scientific data.
Now lets look at you question, "the atmospheric temperature has increased since 1880".
To get a good hypothesis for this question you have to know something about the history of this time period, the 1800's where a time of the industrial revolution, a time when the first steam engines were just being mass produced.
What do engines need to run ? Fuel (wood, coal, and later oil and gasoline)
what does the burning of these fuels release into the atmosphere? CO2 that is carbon dioxide.
Carbon Dioxide is a known green house gas.
So your hypothesis from this would be:
The average global atmospheric temperature has increased since 1880 because of increased CO2 emissions.
Your next step would be to prove this statement true or false by experimentation.
2007-01-25 17:57:22
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answer #2
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answered by borillion_star 2
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What do you think? Its gotten warmer over the the last 127 years. So... what does that mean? Could be part of a cyclic temperature variation. How about the latest fad based thinking... the dreaded "global warming"... could it be?
Its hard to base any significant finding on such a short time study, especially when you are working with a 6 billion year old system. About 20,000+ years ago, the top of the earth was covered in ice, for about the tenth time. Are we still rebounding from the last Ice Age? Could be... This is an inter-glacial time period that is noted by a warm, moist climate. We have ice at both poles. That never occurred before in the earth's long history.
Has man affected the climate, perhaps.... but it a very big system. Can man reverse the dreaded "global warming"? Not likely, especially in our lifetimes. The climatic system of mother earth is very dynamic. It changes no matter what we humans try to do to influence it.
Want they real story on global climates? Take an environmental geology course. Learn about the basic geological term "depositional environment".a.k.a "climate". Its been a lot hotter, its been a lot colder over the last 6 billion years. A gradual rise in global temperatures over 127 years doesn't prove much in the great scheme of things.
2007-01-25 18:12:20
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answer #3
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answered by Tom-PG 4
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Umm... lets see... the atmospheric temperature has been changing from hot to cold and cold to hot since the beginning of time?
2007-01-25 17:50:36
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answer #4
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answered by Anonymous
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