A simple experiment on global warming

A simple experiment has been developed to demonstrate the global warming potential of carbon dioxide (CO₂) gas in the Earth's atmosphere. A miniature electric resistance heating element was placed inside an inflatable balloon. The balloon was filled with either air or CO₂. Whereas the CO₂ partial pressure on the earth's atmosphere is approximately 4 × 10^-4 atm, in this experiment, a high partial pressure of CO₂ (1 atm) was used to compensate for the short radiation absorption path in the balloon. The element was heated to approximately 50°C, the power was then switched off and the element's cooling trends in air and in CO₂ were monitored. It took a longer time to cool the heating element back to ambient temperature in CO₂ than in air. It also took longer times to cool the element in larger size balloons and in pressurized balloons when they were filled with CO₂. To the contrary, the balloon size or pressure made no difference when the balloons were filled with air. A simple mathematical model was developed, and it confirmed that the radiative heat loss from the element decreased significantly in CO₂. This investigation showed that the cooling rate of an object, with surface temperature akin to temperatures found on Earth, is reduced in a CO₂-rich atmosphere because of the concomitant lower heat loss to its environment.