Anthony Rodesney

The Two Liter Greenhouse (Due Monday):

Sometimes we cannot (or should not!) perform an experiment on a system we are studying. In
these cases we have to build a model in order to understand causes and effects. Such is the case
with global warming.
Matched pairs of plastic 2-liter soda bottles make excellent chambers for exploring the effects of
a variety of environmental variables on atmospheric heating. The two liter containers can be built
with various soils, vegetation, atmospheres, air circulation conditions, etc. to see what the
heating effects result when sunlight is shone upon them. A light bulb can be used instead of the
Sun, but it's a little more difficult to make sure that a set of bottles is all equidistant and similarly
illuminated by the bulb.
Ideally, students will first have an opportunity to build greenhouses of their own design. Invite
them to do whatever they can to make one greenhouse hotter than the other. They usually make
the greenhouses very complex, so when they find differences, they may have a variety of
possible factors. Get them to form hypotheses about the cause, then design and execute a second
"cleaner" experiment to probe their hypotheses.
We'll conduct the second experiment here.
Possibilities for Modeling Aspects of the Greenhouse Effect
Water vapor: Add a small amount of water to one chamber and none to the other.
CO2: Put CO2 in one chamber and regular air in another.
Volcanic dust and aerosols: Sprinkle dirt in the bottle and shake it to get a light layer on the sides
of one bottle.
"Albedo" (reflectivity): Put a dark surface to simulate pavement in one chamber, a natural
vegetative surface in the other.
Preparing a Greenhouse Test Chamber
I. If your experiment involves air or water vapor samples, keep the bottles whole, otherwise cut a
pair of bottles to the same height. Another variant is to put plastic wrap over the open end of a
cut bottle to hold in air and moisture.
II. Fill each bottle identically with all materials except for the variables. You can use a scale to
weigh the bottle at various steps to make sure the masses are similar (since a greater mass takes
more energy to warm up).
III. Make sure the walls are clean of dirt (unless that's the variable), that the soil and other
materials are similarly packed (ditto).
IV. Select two thermometers that read the same temperature! (Surprisingly large differences are
present from thermometer to thermometer.) If the thermometers disagree, you should measure
the difference from the starting temperature. You should also figure out how you will shade the
thermometer bulb from direct sunlight so that it gives an accurate reading of the air temperature.
V. Mount the thermometers so that air surrounds the bulb. You can use Play-Doh or plasticene
clay to hold thermometers in the neck of uncut bottles. Make sure you can read the thermometer
through the plastic.

Anthony Rodesney
The Basic Greenhouse Experiment
I. Record the starting temperature of each chamber. Ideally they should be the same. If they're
not, then you should compare the change in temperature of each chamber from its starting value.
II. Expose your chambers to the light source in as similar a fashion as possible. In sunlight, the
temperatures will rise rapidly. Record temperatures every minute for about 10 minutes. On
Fahrenheit thermometers, the nearest degree should be good enough; on Celsius thermometers
try to measure to the nearest half degree.
III. Get both chambers to the same temperature (by shading the warmer one, for example), then
take them both inside and record their temperatures for several more minutes as they cool down.
Post your results under the "Greenhouse" discussion
1. Take a photo of your two chambers and post it.

2. What were you testing? Explain your experimental set up. Were there any unanticipated
variables that might have affected your experiment?
I tested how the composition of the atmosphere affected the temperature inside the bottles. One
bottle was filled with air and the other was filled with a mix of my held breath and car exhaust.
Small holes were drilled into the cap of each bottle and Play-Doh was used to seal the hole after
the thermometer was inserted. There was not constant sunshine during the experiment. There was
also some wind that affected the temperatures inside the bottles.

Anthony Rodesney
3. What were your results?
The bottle with more CO2 did achieve a higher temperature, but I was expecting there to be a
pretty large (at least 10%) gap between the temperatures in the different bottles. The largest gap
was only 1.2 degrees Celsius at minute seven, which was less than 5%. I also expected the bottle
with more CO2 to cool more slowly. It did cool more slowly, but the difference was miniscule.
The readings were within a few tenths of a degree for the entire cool down.
Outside
Times (Minutes)
Breath/Exhaust Temperature (Deg. C)
Air Temperature (Deg. C)
1
30.6
30.6
2
32.2
32.1
3
34.1
34.0
4
35.6
34.7
5
36.8
35.8
6
36.6
35.4
7
36.9
35.7
8
36.7
36.0
9
36.4
35.7
10
36.2
35.8
Inside
Times (Minutes)
Breath/Exhaust Temperature (Deg. C) Air Temperature (Deg. C)
1
30.2
30.1
2
28
28
3
26.4
26.4
4
25.5
25.4
5
24.9
24.7
6
24.5
24.4
7
24.2
24
8
24.1
24
9
24
24
10
24
23.9

Breath/Exhaust vs. Air Temperature

38
33
Temperature (Deg. C)

28
23

Time Outside and Time Inside

Breath/Exhaust Temperature
(Deg. C)
Air Temperature (Deg. C)

Anthony Rodesney

4. Often scientists form a more refined hypothesis after conducting an experiment. What new
experiment would test your explanation or rule out other variables?
I did not directly test how much CO2 was in either container before beginning the experiment.
The caps were screwed on tightly and the hole in the lid was barely big enough for the probe of
the thermometer to fit through it. The gap that did remain was plugged with Play-Doh. Perhaps
not as much exhaust made it into the container even though it was placed beneath the tail pipe of
my car for 30 seconds. It could also be that the air in the second container was moist. Water
vapor is also a greenhouse gas and could have skewed the result. There was dew on the ground
on the morning of the experiment. The experiment that I conducted needed more controls. If I
were to try this experiment again I would use different amounts of vinegar and baking soda to
produce to see how different concentrations of CO2 would affect the temperatures.