This is an experiment set that I've been dying to to do. How many times have you ever wondered about something sun/heat related?? For me - more times than most people hearing about.

Some of these are semi-controlled scenarios, others are simple measurments. All make you look like a total weirdo getting them done....

 

 

 

 

The first experiment
How hot can a car get inside? - Do black cars get hotter than white cars??

 
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After I bought my oven probe kitchen thermometer, the first thing I needed to find out was exactly how hot my car got sitting in the sun. The details were:

4Runner interior
Windows rolled up
2:30pm
Tucson, 110 degrees outside

The cooking thermometer was needed for placement flexibility and a wider temperature range than outdoor models.

And to answer that age old question, NO - black cars do not get hotter than white cars, not by s sinlge degree. Even though your past experience tells you that this is wrong because your dark car gets hotter that your friends car when you go to a movie or the mall. The fact is that dark cars get hot faster than lighter cars. Leave them both out for 4 hours and they will be the same temp. See the experiments below.
How does speed affect my car's A/C??

 


Car stopped
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Car Moving @ 60mph
55

Everyone knows that heat has to go somewhere when it leaves the interior of your car. So if the heat all gets transfered to the fluid filled radiator - then the ability to cool your cabin is directly linked to how well the metal fins of your radiator can shed the heat.

With out air blowing over the radiator there is no where for the abundant heat to go... so what EXACTLY is the differnce for my ol' 4Runner standing still or driving down RT 10????
Experiment #1

The experiment: This is the first of a series of experiments to prove or disprove what gets hotter in the sun. Does a piece of black steel get hotter than the inside of a glass jar? Will a potato remain cooler at its core than the outside air? Since things like this have kept me awake at night for the past few years – I've decided to finally do a quick series of heat experiments. Hopefully the results presented below can be interpreted and twisted to give you an idea of other scenarios – say the difference between the inside of a car vs. the hood based on the glass jar test.

 
Might be hard to see but basically between every measurement - the thermal probe was hung up in the shade to cool off.
All off these samples were done at the same time, separated only by a minute to let the probe cool down. All the samples were taken within 15min during a cloudless July day.

Inside a glass jar

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Inside a black steel box

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Inside a piece of square steel stock, unpainted

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Inside a potato after an hour. Remember it was only 101 outside.
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The leather glove - pretty hot... too hot to wear actually. And yes, I'm a wimp.

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Ben Green

IPVision crap camera!