On Sunday, 9 August 2015 14:13:12 UTC+1, Metman2012 wrote:
I've been following this thread with fascination. I'm not a physicist or
even a scientist, but I have a question that perhaps someone can answer.
Let's ask it with an example. There are three bodies, one at -50, one at
0 and one at 50 degrees. It's obvious that the one at 50 degrees is hot
radiating and the one at -50 is cold radiating. What is the one in the
middle doing? Unless I've completely missed the point, it's cold
radiating to the one at 50 and hot radiating to the one at -50. How can
it be both?
Now let's add another body, say at 100 degrees. This one is now the hot
radiating one, and the one at 50 degrees now becomes a body which does
both. Now the reality of the universe is that there are many bodies, all
busily radiating. And we can't know which is the hottest and which the
coldest, so everything is radiating both hot and cold.

So am I being simplistic? Am I not understanding what all this is about?

Can someone answer in simple terms (one syllable or less) to explain
this please?
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I think you have hit the nail on the head. All bodies above 0 K radiate.
No point in talking about warm radiation or cold radiation.

It is the same as talking about cold temperatures and warm temperatures.
Wrong and often used by those you have no proper education in science.
Temperature is a scalar.
High and low temperatures is the correct way for reference.

Cold and warm temperatures are often used by weather presenters on the media, but I have seen it even on the UKMO website. Tut Tut.

Len
Wembury


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