How heavy is the sky? | Brains On! Science Podcast For Kids

you're listening to Brainson, where we take curiosity seriously. Brainson is funded in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Popsicles, get your popsicles here. Hi Bob, oh hi Molly. I didn't know you had a popsicle stand that I just opened. Today it is called Bob's Pops. Do you want to try one of my new flavors? It's a little cold, but sure, thanks here you go, what do you think? Can you guess the flavor? Wow, it tastes like ice, yeah, and algae, ding ding, right, this is my lake. pop, tastes like a lake, doesn't it?

Uh, yes, it does. It has a lot more character than the stuff that comes out of your TAP. Here I have another one for you. I'll give you a hint, it's also inspired by nature, okay, oh. Wow, it's brown, sticky and sandy like dirt or mud. Bingo, you have a keen sense of taste. Molly, it's my clay. Pop. I figured there are mud pies, why not mud pops? Oh, it's very unique, but mud pops are not my thing. you have anything that's a little bit lighter, maybe with less mess, oh don't worry, I've got the perfect pop for you, you know what I'm actually getting full of, really, this is my absolute favorite here, uh, but it's just a palette. stick may look like just a popsicle stick but it's much more try it M it's invisible but there's something there it feels like my ears are bursting and I'm getting a touch of cloudiness with subtle airy notes you have.

It's Molly, three out of three, this is my sky pop, it may not look like much, but wow, it packs a punch, just like our big, beautiful sky. You're listening to Brainson from the 8 p.m. studios. I'm Molly Bloom and I'm here with Felix from Nashville Tennessee Hi Felix Hi Molly So Felix today we're talking about the sky and you asked us a pretty important question about it Yeah, I wanted to know how

heavy

the sky is. It's a really great question, so I'm curious to know how he did it. It occurred to you. I was looking at the sky.

I thought it must weigh something. What a great idea. I love it. So how do you define heaven. It's like an area above the trees, but not in outer space. Very good. What do you think about when you look at the sky? um oo. I think of it as a place where birds fly and soar. Mhm, have you ever been to heaven? Yes, I was on a plane, how did it feel? being on a plane feels like when you first take off it feels like you're flying but then you're normal mhm yeah the first time you take off you feel like it pushes your body yeah but yeah but your ears open up yeah and then , when you jump into the sky, even though it feels like you're sitting there, yeah, this feels like you're, I don't know, in a car, mhm, totally Felix, what does the sky taste like? your opinion cold like water but cool but not water like me that's a very good question that's a good answer do you know what we should try it right now yeah just a little cool mhm refreshing good to find out how

heavy

the sky is first?

I have to answer where the sky begins and where it ends, yes, how big is it and that is a complicated question. When you look at the sky on a clear day, you feel like you're standing inside a snow globe looking up. in a bright blue dome, but even though it seems like there is an end to the sky, there is no ceiling to the sky, it just goes on and on until it fades into space, but there is an imaginary line out there that scientists think of as the end. from the sky, yes, and it is called the Carmen Line.

The Carmen Line is between 50 and 62 miles above the Earth's surface, which is actually pretty close. If you were to drive a car at highway speed into the sky, it would only take about an hour. Get there, but once you get there you won't know because the Carmen line is invisible, yes, and it marks the point on the Earth's surface where ples can no longer fly because there isn't enough air to sustain them and here's why planes need Lift to fly is a force created by a liquid or gas passing near an object. When a plane takes off, air rushes past its wings and, as it does so, the air generates pressure that pushes those wings upward. and outward, so the lift created by the air rushing past the wings of the plane helps keep it up, yes, and at the Caron line there isn't enough air left to create that lift, that's where something called force orbital takes control.

Orbital force is the energy that pushes objects like satellites and space debris. circles around the earth those things move above the line of Carmen and everything that is below the line of Carmen is part of the sky which is where airplanes can fly so we will say that the sky ends at the line of Carmen The next question is where is heaven? it starts right under our feet Yes, because the sky is made of air and there is air under our feet, it is also in our stomach, our lungs, our ears, it is everywhere, but since we cannot see the air most of it about time, it's easy to forget, but as soon as we start paying attention to our breasts or the wind blowing outside our window or, oh Molly, oh sorry, my cat has no manners, but yes, even our farts make us They remember that air is everywhere and that air is made up of air molecules, the molecules are tiny. little building blocks that make up everything you mean my shoes trees the air all the molecules are so small that we can't see them with our own eyes we should increase the zoom speed and look at some air molecules up close yeah, hello, hello, we are air molecules hello hello nice to meet you hello, as you can see, air molecules are small droplets that bounce in the empty space next to the Carmen line, where there is less air, there are many fewer air molecules and they are very far apart. from others, hey molecule.

Where did you go? I'm here, I miss you friend, but whether you're up there or down here, the air molecules are all around you because of the things that make up the sky, okay, so let's review, the sky begins under our feet. and it ends at the carbon line about 50 to 62 miles above the surface of the Earth and the sky is made of air which is made of air molecules, which brings us back to your question Felix, how heavy is heaven? So we have all these air molecules. from here to the line of carbon that pushes us down, although they are small and we cannot feel each one individually, they weigh a lot, yes, the average weight of the air pressing down on us is about 15 pounds for every square inch of the surface of the earth is like the weight of a boing ball squeezing every square inch of the planet or the weight of a medium sized cat farting twice, yes a square inch is about the size of two postage stamps, imagine squeezing the weight of a bowling ball or a medium sized cat farting on two postage stamps, that's a lot of weight pushing down on a very small amount of space, yes, and there are 4 B1 14,489,000 squares in 1 square mile, Imagine, imagine that many medium-sized cats, oh, farting cats, each perched on two postage stamps, all squeezed into a square mile, that's a lot of cats, a lot of farts, and a lot of weight in a square mile, but listen This, the Earth measures 196 m900 thousand square miles, so imagine 4 bills. 14,400 9,600 medium cats oh who farts who farts 196 M 900,000 times and that's the weight of the sky so what would that number be like if the sky was put on a scale how heavy would it be let's do a little calculation here? 14.7 pounds per square in * 4 billion 14 million,000 whoo drum roll please the sky weighs 5 million billion tons I can't even imagine that I don't either what if we think of 5 million billion tons of another So a ton is 2,000? lb a doll weighs about a ton, they do it right, now imagine a billion walruses now imagine a billion walruses times a million, that's a lot of walls, yeah, and they sound really funny, I'm not sure that Help, but that's how heavy the sky is.

It weighs 5 million trillion walruses, which feels like an amazing band name, it's a walrus, yes the name is Cornelia. I am the leader of my band. 5 million billion walruses want to hear a new hit single about the weight of the sky. radical, yeah, okay, Walles, come on, we're the walruses of the sky, 5 million trillion flying high, feel our breath, feel our Bree, he moves us through the trees, every 2000 pounds of walrus, we love circling around From the howling wind, it's our side up, on our backs, come. on, let's fly, feel us flip, feel us dive, hear us sing, sway and dive when the wind goes away, woo, just know you're good work, yes, really beautiful work, thank you Felix, thank you Molly, catch you in the fin side, that was really cool, yeah, almost as cool as today. s Felix, are you ready to listen to The Mystery Sound?

Yes, I'm fine, let's listen to it well. Felix, what do you think it sounds like someone is pouring something into a bowl? M because I eat the spoon at the end. Yes, it definitely sounded like there was a cutlery spoon. A bowl sounds happening, what do you think could be pouring into a bowl? I don't know, it sounds like nuts or something bigger, not like cereal, but like that it can make that kind of metallic noise, very good to listen to, well, let's listen. Watch it again and have another chance to guess after the credits, so stay with us if you want to hear more great bonus episodes like this every month, visit smarty pass.org to subscribe.

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s. smash boom best ever ago and moment of um and other benefits like event discounts on merchandise plus an exclusive thank you gift mailed directly to your home. Subscription is just $3.99 a month or $36 for the entire year, visit Smarty pass.org. And thanks. So much for supporting our show, you're listening to Brains on I'm Molly and I'm Felix and today we answer the epic question of how heavy is the sky. Before the break we calculated that the sky weighs 5 million billion tons. 5 million billion Wales but something we haven't talked about yet is why we don't notice the weight of the sky most of the time and sometimes we do here to talk to us about some of those moments is our friend Wanda meteorologist hello Wanda Hello Felix, hello Molly, welcome to Wanda's weather hour, where we walk about the weather, we walk where we talk about the weather, where there is, we weather it better because we love the weather so much.

Wow, great theme song, thanks. I wrote it myself, so we want to ask you. A question about the guy's weight, we found out he weighs 5 million billion tons, but we want to know why we don't normally realize how heavy he is. What a wonderful question. Molly, when I get important questions like this, I always consult my excellent handyman all Almanac here we go, the sky is real, but it's hard to feel the air moving by pressing up and down, so what that means is that usually We don't notice the weight of the sky because the air outside our bodies is generally pushing on us as hard as the air inside our bodies is pushing outward, okay, so the pressure is balanced inside and outside our bodies most of the time. time.

Yeah, think about it this way, the sky, the things we swim in, so we don't usually notice it until it starts moving and moving in unexpected ways. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm just going to check my barometer here and see if I have any weather updates to share. like a big pocket watch, yes, barometers are tools that measure how much air rotates around us and how heavy or light it is, we call that atmospheric pressure or air pressure, the atmosphere is all the layers of air that surround the Earth, yes, and the atmosphere. It's like a delicious layer cake Airy the bottom layer which is the one that surrounds us is called the troposphere it includes all the air we breathe and all the clouds in the sky oh and tropos means to rotate or change in Greek because the weather in this layer is always changing and that's why I love it.

The troposphere is where weather occurs. If the weather never changed, you wouldn't have a serious job and you wouldn't notice the weight of the sky, so WEA is a win-win, so when the weather changes. That's when we feel the weight of the sky, basically yes, take the wind for example, you can feel the wind and what you feel is the air and the sky moving. My friend Deanna therefore describes how the wind works in the most beautiful way. She says it's about balance. wind occurs because it is just the atmosphere. Trying to balance places where there is more air versus less air, so it moves that air from places where there is more, which we know as high pressure, to places where there is less and that is known.

Like low pressure, I couldn't have said it better. Deanna is an assistant professor of atmospheric

science

s at the University of Illinois. She is a champagne drinker and a big fan of my show. I have her as a guest all the time, so the wind is just the atmosphere. trying to move air from places where there is a lot of air to places where there is less air yes, and so onIt's how all weather works, it's just air moving from high pressure to low pressure over and over again mixing with water along the way, how do some of them work?

Places end up with more or less air than other places. How does high and low blood pressure happen? One way is temperature. Temperature greatly affects air movement. Let's think about low pressure areas or places where there is less air. It can happen when air. it gets hot here's deana's take as the air gets more energy let's say the sun heats it up it starts to get what I consider a fun of Zoomies Zoomies let's zoom in on those air molecules again so we can see them move around wo Mala gets colder more like Mala heat, they're moving really fast, yeah, and here's a fun fact: the actual speed of the molecule hitting us is what registers as hot or cold depending on how fast it's going.

I know, so when air molecules hit you, you absorb some of their energy and if the air molecules are hot and supercharged with energy and buzzing around, they will bounce off you a ton and transfer their energy to you as heat, look what I'm coming quickly, hello mom, those molecules are moving a lot. I can feel the heat right now. Yes, it's hot in here, but you know, another funny thing happens when air molecules get hot. When those Zoomies happen, the air molecules get farther and farther apart, but they don't have much of anything. to keep them from just expanding, expanding, expanding further away from me, and as they do, they become less and less dense.

Another way of saying this is that there is less air in the same space since the air is spread out so widely. that would be lower pressure, less air, hotter air means fewer air molecules in an area, and as those hot air molecules separate, they become less dense and have less pressure, they rise, the hot air rises exactly like in a hard air balloon, but like air. The molecules move away from the Earth and get further and further away, they start to slow down, and as they slow down, they get colder. Cold air, on the other hand, becomes more welcoming to its friends, becomes increasingly dense and begins to condense. there is water and it will start to condense that water into clouds those clouds could cool the area or even rain on it this cycle of hot air buzzing around Growing expanding cooling and then or condensing this is what makes the weather my favorite including Rain My great aunt, honey, always said she could tell when it was going to rain because she felt it in her joints.

Oh yeah, there's a bit about that phenomenon in my handy dandy Everything Almanac. When it's going to rain, squeaky elbows feel pain, of course, eh, because the weather is rainy. It comes with low pressure and this low pressure means that there is less air around and less weight on our joints, so your joints may react by swelling a little and feeling sore, so cold, but what if the weather changes and you are already up ? air like a bird mmm well let me check the almanac section on birds and weather ah here we go when the pressure goes from high to low a robin knows it's time to go so the birds can feel the Air pressure drops before rain arrives.

Yes, he also says here. Hawks flying high means a clear sky. Hawks flying low means a storm is about to break out. He also says that scientists aren't quite sure exactly how birds sense changes in air pressure, but they seem to be very sensitive. There seem to be some. other rhymes written in the margins here if the birds sing in the rain the good weather will soon return oh because they can feel the air pressure rising so they know the rain is coming out, yeah, and here, when the seagulls huddle close from the shore, it's not a No more beach day, oh, they can sense the bad weather so they can avoid the open ocean, that makes sense, huh, hm, if your chickens don't roost, their self-esteem could use a boost, uh, one night, Andale, who won't sing, could benefit from counseling, oh.

Wow, I went too far, that was the bird therapy section. Coming back to us humans, one of the times we definitely notice changes in air pressure is when our ears open if you climb a very tall building, climb a mountain or fly in an airplane yes, you know what it feels like. , there can be a lot of pressure behind the eardrum, you have to yawn, chew gum, that's air pressure in action. Deanna explains it like this and what happens there is you know your body has air bubbles especially inside. in some of these things on your faces they are known as sinuses, once you move to an environment where there is less air again, that air will want to move from where there is greater pressure, which is inside your head, to the outside, where there is less. air and that change in pressure is what we experience when our ears pop, so before the air moves from one side of the eardrum to the other, it puts a lot of pressure on the eardrums, making them hurt, it's like all the air behind your eardrum is begging to get out and when you're on a plane and you're changing the air pressure around you very quickly you notice it a lot, oh god, I have to catch a 5:00 flight to Tulsa for my next Wanda's broadcast. weather time TSA security lines always have 5 million billion people goodbye Wanda the sky starts below our feet and ends at the carbon line about 50 to 62 m above the Earth's surface and the sky is formed by a bunch of air molecules constantly moving from high pressure to low pressure and this cycle of air movement creates the weather.

That's it for this episode of Brains. This episode was written by Rosie Deon and Anna Goldfield and produced by Molly Broom Ruby Guthrie and Anna wle Aon W sloi Nico. González Whistler and Mark Sanchez our editors are Shayla Farzon and Sandon Totton this episode was sound designed by Rachel Breeze and we had engineering help from David Walton and Michael Osborne Beth Perman is our executive producer the executives in charge of APM studios are Chandra kavati Alex Shaffer and Joanne Griffith special thanks to Brand Miller Jenny Adams and Alex Adams Brainson is a nonprofit public radio program.

There are many ways to support the program. You can sign up for our Smarty Pass, buy our books, or tell your friends about us and submit questions. fan art and mysterious sounds head to Brains en.org, okay Felix, are you ready to return to the Mysterious Sound? Yes, wonderful, here it is again, okay, any new thoughts, oo, that's hard, that's hard, it sounds like you are. like dropping potatoes into something like a bowl I don't know M you're hearing food although you're hearing like a sound related to food yes, because like that plate yes, that sound of the plate is very familiar, but it's hard to know what food is happening there exactly are you ready for the answer? yeah I'm fine hello my name is Sean hey my name is Kepler that was the sound of my dad cutting the kernels off an ear of corn.

What I know, I know, yes, cutting corn off the cob. Wow, it's very difficult, but you know what I'm giving you, definitely, at least 75% credit for that because you have the food, you have the plate and you have the utensils, very well done, very good job, hold on, we are all . We'll be back next week with more answers to your questions. Thanks for listening.