The laboratory replication of the greenhouse effect appears deceptively simple. Using a cubic box illuminated by an ordinary lamp, one may show some of the phenomena present in the climate system. It is nonetheless necessary to use a lot of physical ingenuity to understand the complex interaction of radiative and convective phenomena which characterizes such a simple system. In this paper we introduce a critical review of some experiments in the literature and suggest a new and original experimental set up using an unusual gas; in this way we overcome some of the limitations of the typical laboratory experiment, confirming the possibility of using it in educational physics laboratories without any lack of physical plausibility.

'Climate change in a shoebox': a critical review

Bertò, Michele;Della Volpe, Claudio;Gratton, Luigi
2014-01-01

Abstract

The laboratory replication of the greenhouse effect appears deceptively simple. Using a cubic box illuminated by an ordinary lamp, one may show some of the phenomena present in the climate system. It is nonetheless necessary to use a lot of physical ingenuity to understand the complex interaction of radiative and convective phenomena which characterizes such a simple system. In this paper we introduce a critical review of some experiments in the literature and suggest a new and original experimental set up using an unusual gas; in this way we overcome some of the limitations of the typical laboratory experiment, confirming the possibility of using it in educational physics laboratories without any lack of physical plausibility.
2014
2
Bertò, Michele; Della Volpe, Claudio; Gratton, Luigi
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11572/68898
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