Some
of you may wonder how a green house takes solar energy and turns it into
thermal energy. A good example of this is something you can
observe every day in the summer in you own car. It happens when you
leave you car in a sunny parking lot with the windows up. The solar
energy is passing through the glass and is heating the cars interior.
Whats really happening is the short wave infrared waves are going in and
are turning into long wave infrared waves, which cannot escape. So the
just reflect around and get absorbed by their supproundings. This
of course is the ideal setup to grow plants. And thus you green house helps
your plant grow.
This illustration shows how the glass wont let the long wave radiation out.
Picture from: familyeducation.com
The infrared light waves are invisible to the naked eye, they lie between microwaves and visible light waves in the light spectrum. Other waves include UV, and opaque. We all know all about infrared, we may just not know it. Its what you feel when you stand next to a fire, its lying in the sun and sweating, or huddling up for warmth.
Light waves are measured in "Nanometers". UV waves are measured from
about 300-400 Nanometers, visible light waves measure about 400-700, The
infrared measure at about 700-3500. The Opaque range in the low end
at 300-400, and at the high ent at about 2000-3500.
Picture from: familyeducation.com
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Harvest the Sun
By: Nick Nicholson
Page by: Casey levit