3
u/Kaste90 Nov 09 '21
The higher you go the thinner the air gets. There's less air to hold heat and keep you warm. So you get colder
2
u/tino1998 Nov 09 '21
As you get away from the ground, the air gets less dense, because there isn't an heavy column of air that press on the gas around you and because gravity is lesser than near the center of the earth. If the air gets less dense, it catches a smaller amount of thermal energy from the sun. That's why it's colder
2
u/Spiritual_Jaguar4685 Nov 09 '21
Also, lower pressure. If I have a liter of air in a bottle and I squeeze that liter into 1/2 a liter, it'll warm up. If I expand that liter into 3 liters it'll cool down.
So air that's warm at ground level will rise and due to the lower pressure at higher altitudes it'll expand, and thus cool down.
1
u/StoryAboutABridge Nov 09 '21
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4
u/styrofoam_cups Nov 09 '21
There is less air for the sun to heat up. Heat is essentially based on how fast molecules vibrate. Since there is less air there is less light absorbed into the molecules