Question

Will fan and medal!!

1. Select all that apply.

Which of the following components of air help to trap infrared energy?



nitrogen
oxygen
carbon dioxide
water

2.
Which of the following substances will show the smallest change in temperature when equal amounts of energy are absorbed?


water
air
sand
concrete

Answer 1

1 water and carbondioxide, but also Nitrous oxide (N2O), and ozone (O3), which contain nitrogen and oxygen. But I would only answer water and carbon dioxide.
2: water has highest heat capacity, so water is the answer.

Answer 2

i saw a graph on this page, that plots the absorbtion of waves vs the frequency of the electromagnetic waves coming through the atmosphere, plus indication of which gas absorbs it.

http://environ.andrew.cmu.edu/m3/s2/04solarad.shtml

Answer 3

on that graph one can see that even oxygen (\[O _{2}\]) absorbs a part of the energy in the infrared spectrum.