Where did the term greenhouse effect come from?

Answer 1

greenhouses were once the only green spot in a white winter in Europe

Greenhouses were glasshouses until copper oxide was added to the glass (to reflect sunlight) giving the glass a green tint

Answer 2

In Earth, the heat from the sun, that normally would be released back into space, stays trapped within the atmosphere because gases produced by industries or man made technologies (pollution) absorb the heat, not allowing it to be released into space. This produces an elevation of temperature on the Earth's surface.

Answer 3

It's called "The Greenhouse Effect" because the Earth is like a giant greenhouse. People use greenhouses to help their plants grow. Ultraviolet (UV) light, which is short wave radiation, penetrates the greenhouse gas layer and most of it is repelled bacl into space. However, the radiation that penetrated the greenhouse gas layer is converted into longwave radiation and cannot escape through the gas layer and is therefore spread throughout the Earth's surface heating it.

Answer 4

In the beginning someone said "these gases keep the earth warm 'like a greenhouse'" meaning they absorbed the sun's heat.

Later some non-science person thought that the gas floated to the top of the atmosphere to form a layer like the glass in a greenhouse.

The popular view is that the atmosphere has some sort of layer of carbon dioxide "up there" that reflects heat back down to Earth rather than letting it escape to space. That would be like the glass on a greenhouse trapping warm air in while letting the sunlight through to increase the heat. In a greenhouse the sunlight warms the benches and floor, he warm objects heat the air, the air is trapped by the double layer of insulating glass.

It does not happen that way.

Sunlight comes in and warms the Earth's surface. It warms the gases in the air too, at least some of them with a bond size that gets excited by sunlight. These special gases are greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, water vapour and a few others). They are mixed evenly through all of the atmosphere (not in layer). When the gases are warm they share their heat with all their gas molecule neighbour and heat the atmosphere generally.

The effect i more like wet sand in a microwave. Microwaves do not heat sand. They do heat water. When you microwave wet sand, the water heats up - might even turn to steam. The hot water warms the sand.

Aside: The question "How is the atmosphere like wet sand in a microwave oven?" has not been asked.

Answer 5

Rather like a greenhouse (glasshouse) which retains heat allowing warmer conditions (for growing tomatoes in Canada), so the greenhouse effect retains heat in the atmosphere, allowing warmer conditions suitable for life on earth for many millions of years.

Answer 6

Sunlight and energy get trapped because of our earth's atmosphere just like a greenhouse.