As for how long heat can be retained by water

As you may recall, an earlier post called into doubt the AGW due to the possibility that heat cannot be retained so that it may build up.

To answer that question definitively, an easy experiment can be setup.  Like the GEICO commercial said, "even a caveman can do it."  Bwah, hah, hah

Water vapor is a greenhouse gas, it is said.  Which is believable, but what does that mean if it cannot hold heat for longer than a night?  It can't, and we shall see why.

Definition

One BTU is the measurement for the amount of heat required to heat up one pound of water one degree Farenheit.

Given

One square foot of surface area is subjected to 100 watts of energy from the Sun for at most 12 hours per day on the average.  Since the discussion is about the entire Earth, only 1/2 of it can be in the Sun at one time.


Therefore, at most, each square foot can deliver so many BTU a day.  Since a BTU equals 1055 joules, and 100 watts for 12 hours equals 1.2 kwh, and 1 kwh equals 3.6 million joules, we can calculate the following:

(3.6e6x1.2)/1.055e3 equals 4095 BTU rounded.

A gallon of water weighs  UK imp = 10 lbs rounded.  Obviously, more water is needed.  With 10 gallons of water, you can use the equivalent energy from sunlight on 1 square foot to raise its temperature from 39 Farenheit to about 80 Farenheit.  Assuming air temperature then of about 39 deg F, then do you believe that if left for 12 hours, that the water will retain any of that heat?   I DON'T.

Not to worry about the water amount being too much.  Three quarters of the Earth's surface is covered by water, and it is well over an average of a thousand feet deep.  Given that a cubic foot holds about 7 gallons of water, the world has plenty of water on its surface.  The land isn't useful for trapping heat.  It quickly radiates away.

The reason I don't  believe water will retain the heat is through experience.  When I was a kid, I liked to hang around swimming pools.  I liked it so much that I would spend entire days down at the pool.  In the morning, the water was COLD.  In the late night hours, the water was very WARM, nearly HOT.  So, over the night hours, the water lost all of its heat.

It can be tested and confirmed experimentally.  Just heat up a bucket of water and watch it get back to room temperature.  It will before 12 hours have passed.  You can heat it up at night and check on it in the morning.

I'm sure it will be at room temperature in the morning.

The point?  Gases cannot retain heat as well as water and if water cannot hold heat for 12 hours, then how can there be any such thing as a Greenhouse Effect?

If I am wrong, then I'll admit it freely.

Is there any way to do this experiment?

Maybe.  You can assume that the stove top is about 1000 watts.  If you can keep all the numbers in the proper proportion, the proof should not be too hard to obtain.

Let's say you can calculate temperature loss per hour in BTU.  Heat up a pound of water to boiling.  From 72 F to 212 F is 140 degrees.  That's 140 BTU.  If it takes 7 hours to return to room temperature, then it loses 20 BTU per hour.

In the above opening paragraphs, the number needed would be 4095/12.  That 341 BTU per hour needed.  Seventeen pounds of water would do it, but maybe we want to compress time.  If 140 BTU raises a pound to boiling point, then if it cools in  140/341 hours ( 25 min) , then we have a proof!  My hunch is that it would take longer to cool.

Gonna try it!  Bwah, hah, hah!

Update:

By golly, by gosh, I did it.  I placed about a pound of water into a pan and boiled it.  Then I began measuring how fast it cooled off.  After 25 minutes, it cooled to 105 Farenheit.  That's a lot of cooling.  I was right in that it took longer than 25 minutes to cool down to room temp.  It's now over 40 minutes and I think I will take the temperature again.

Update:

Took the temperature at 45 minutes.  I'd say it was close to room temperature.  Surely, by an hour it would definitely be at room temperature.

Back to the pool example:  Now, if the average pool depth is 5 feet, and if you assume a column of water one square foot extending from the surface to the floor, that would give an mass of approx 300 lbs of water in that column.   Thus, 4095/300 gives 13.65 degree of heating.  That makes sense.  Houston's low temperatures in summer is about 75 degree or a bit higher.  If it heats up nearly 14 degrees, then it is nearly 90 degrees.  That would feel pretty warm, or maybe hotter than you would like if you wanted to cool off from a hot day.

Conclusion:  I think this little experiment casts doubt on Greenhouse Theory itself.  Maybe, just maybe, there isn't one, because it isn't even possible for there to be one.  In other words, it doesn't make any difference what you do to the atmosphere--- it cannot hold heat long enough in order to accumulate, and thus to raise temperatures.