Icarus

If you go up a hill does it getter hotter because you're closer to the sun?
- Melanie Salathiiel
Bunbury

The Sun is roughly 100,000,000 miles away, so climbing even a mile-high mountain doesn't bring you enough closer to the Sun to matter. One reason you get hotter is that you exert a lot of effort climbing. Another is that people often forget to bring enough water and start to get dried out. Another is that the tops of hills are often less shady than the nearby valleys. If you climb a high enough mountain, there is less atmosphere above protecting you from the Sun's ultraviolet rays, so you can get a sunburn, which feels hot.

Mike W.

(published on 05/16/2013)