Still warming to my favourite topic of climate change. Find below a complete story about how we are able to measure atmospheric temperatures from millions of years ago. Use this as a lesson starter or discussion topic with students.
400 years ago:
Johannes van Helmont (born Brussels, Spanish/Dutch citizen), an early experimentalist, first coins the word gas. Probably from Greek chaos and his particular use of Flemish.
Also famous for his 5 year tree experiment and for perhaps the first idea of an enzyme.
300 years ago:
Réamur, French, invents the cupola furnace, similar to a modern blast furnace, for melting and smelting iron. A major by-product of extracting iron from its ore is of course carbon dioxide. The industrial revolution is now of course history!
Also famous for his Reamur temperature scale.
200 years ago:
The continent of Antarctica, a huge sheet of ice nearly 5 kilometers thick at one point, is sighted for the first time by three explorers independently. A Russian, von Bellingshausen, an American, Palmer and an Englishman, Bransfield. In the same year, electromagnetism is discovered by Oersted, Danish. Arago and Ampere, both French contribute with Ampere's Law and magnetization, while Schweigger, German, invents the galvanometer. These developments underpin all scientific efforts to make measurements, and in particular the mass spectrometer.
100 years ago:
Aston, British, invents the first mass spectrometer for measuring the isotopic composition of the elements and discovers the whole number rule for atomic masses.
Today:
Antarctica is an area of enormous experimental interest, with many countries collecting data on the atmosphere, ice and the oceans, not to mention data about past climates. Many nationalities over four centuries have contributed to this scientific enterprise.
We measure carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere millions of years ago by examining tiny bubbles of air trapped in ice-cores. We can also measure the isotopic composition of gases trapped in these bubbles to determine past climate temperatures. In this way carbon dioxide concentrations can be correlated with atmospheric temperatures.
Best wishes
Ian
Yazar Hakkında:
Ian Galloway
Ian Galloway is the T3 Europe STEM lead and is an International Professional Development provider and author. He is a former assessor for the UK Science Council and served four years on the government Advisory Panel for Science in Society for the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council. From 2001-2003 he served as chair of the Association for Science Education, an international association of science teachers and Europe's largest subject teaching organisation. He has won national awards for teaching physics and was an examinations scrutineer for the former Qualification and Curriculum Authority. He is a founder member of the UK Science Learning Centre network and is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics. His a founding committee member of STEM PD.
physicsgalloway@gmail.com
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