Explain Like I'm Five | Don't Panic!

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Eli5 If hot air rises then why is it colder the higher up in elevation we go? (lemmit.online)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The original was posted on /r/explainlikeimfive by /u/Fuhrious520 on 2023-09-16 09:28:28.

Was hiking in the mountains the other day, the weather channel said it was going to be in the high 50s. When we reached the base my wife asked me why I said it was going to be cold when it was temperate in the 70s but I started cooling off the higher we went, and this was kinda my “shower thought” of the day.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

The atmosphere is more dense at the surface and thins out as we climb altitude. Several gases are probably denser than air so there's few of those as well at altitude. Heat is concentrated where the air is more dense and also heat trapping gases like water vapour and CO2 are abundant at sea level.

But I am just testing my brain and could have done a search to back up my answer. That means I could be wrong.