If heat rises, how come snow accumulates on mountains? Why is it colder up there instead of down here? — HG, Grand Prairie, TX

On a local scale, hot air does rise through cold air. That’s because when hot air and cold air are at the same temperatures, the hot air has fewer air molecules per liter than the cold air and so each liter of hot air is lighter than each liter of cold air. In short, hot air is less dense than cold air and it floats upward in cold air. But when hot air rises a long way through the atmosphere, something begins to happen to the hot air. It cools off! That’s because the air pressure decreases with altitude. The air pressure that’s around us on the ground is only present because the air down here must support the air overhead. The air down here must push upward on the air overhead and it does this by developing a high pressure. But as you move upward in the atmosphere, there’s less air overhead and therefore less air pressure around you.

So as the hot air rises upward, the air pressure around it gradually diminishes and the hot air expands. It has to expand because whenever its pressure is higher than the surrounding pressure, its molecules experience outward forces that cause them to spread out. But this expansion process uses some of the hot air’s thermal energy—the hot air must push the surrounding air out of the way as it expands. With less thermal energy in it, the hot air becomes cooler. Dry air loses about 10° C for every kilometer it rises, while moist air loses about 6° or 7° C per kilometer. This cooling effect explains why air at higher altitudes, such as the air on mountains, is colder than the air at lower altitudes, such as the air in valleys.

Furthermore, whenever cold air descends through the atmosphere, it is compressed and its temperature rises! This warming process also increases the air’s water-carrying ability so that it becomes relatively dry. That effect explains the special “Katabatic” winds that blow warm and dry out of the mountains—including the Santa Ana winds near Los Angeles, the Chinook in the Rocky Mountains, the Foehn in the Alps, and the Zonda in Argentina.

How does a refrigerator work? – SK

A refrigerator uses a material called a “working fluid” to transfer heat from the food inside the refrigerator to the air around the refrigerator. This working fluid moves through the refrigerator’s three main components—the compressor, the condenser, and the evaporator—over and over again, in a continuous cycle. I’ll begin as the fluid enters the refrigerator’s compressor, which is usually located on the bottom of the refrigerator where it’s exposed to the room air. The working fluid enters the compressor as a low-pressure gas at roughly room temperature. The compressor squeezes the molecules of that gas closer together, increasing the gas’s density and pressure. Since squeezing a gas involves physical work (a force exerted on an object as that object moves in the direction of the force), the compressor transfers energy to the working fluid and that fluid becomes hotter as a result.. The working fluid leaves the compressor as a high-pressure gas that’s well above room temperature. The working fluid then enters the condenser, which is typically a snake-like pipe on the back of the refrigerator. Since the fluid is hotter than the room air, heat flows out of the fluid and into the room air. The fluid then begins to condense into a liquid and it gives up additional thermal energy as it condenses. This additional thermal energy also flows as heat into the room air.

The working fluid leaves the condenser as a high-pressure liquid at roughly room temperature. It then flows into the refrigerator, then through a narrowing in the pipe, and then into the evaporator, which is another snake-like pipe that’s wrapped around the freezing compartment (in a non-frostfree refrigerator) or hidden in the back of the food compartment (in a frostfree refrigerator). When the fluid goes through the narrowing in the pipe, it’s pressure drops and it enters the evaporator as a low-pressure liquid at roughly room temperature. It immediately begins to evaporate and expands into a gas. In doing so, it uses its thermal energy to separate its molecules from one another and it becomes very cold. Heat flows from the food to this cold gas. The working fluid leaves the evaporator as a low-pressure gas a little below room temperature and heads off toward the compressor to begin the cycle again. Overall, heat has been extracted from the food and delivered to the room air. The compressor consumed electric energy during this process and that energy has become thermal energy in the room air.