Heat from the sun heats up the earth but the air in the atmosphere does not get heated up. Why?
Answers
Answer:The heat from the sun does heat up the air and everything else. The air takes relatively longer to get heated up so the perception that air doesn’t get heated. One may feel the same while touching a rock/ earth that feels hot while the breeze feels cool. The breeze will be cold as compared to the earth but the ‘cool’ feel is because it dries your perspiration making you “feel” cool.
Our perceptions are very relative so what is more (compared to one thing) becomes less compared to something something less. Try the classical experiment of three tubs - 1 = ice cold water, 2 = water at room temperature and 3 = very hot, almost boiling water. Place one hand in 1 and the other in 3. After a minute, put both the hands in 2. What does each hand “feel” about the temperature of tub 2?
Getting a bit technical, use a specific heat capacity chart like this one: It tells you what gets hot soon and what takes time. Substances with high heat capacities take long to get hot. You will find that air is 0.4 so takes time over sand or sandstone at 0.19/0.17.