Thursday 21 January 2016

Are the Stonehenge Bluestones warmer than the Sarsen Stones?

No.



Sarsen and Bluestone at the New Visitor Centre near Stonehenge - Bluestone on right of photo and identical shot with a thermal camera showing temperature. Click to enlarge.


The zeroth law of thermodynamics states that they will be in equilibrium in a stable environment, but they have different thermal conductivity and capacity which means they will reach equilibrium with the air temperature at different rates and will feel a different temperature to the touch; just as wood and steel at the same temperature do.

3 comments:

  1. That's 'cool', as they say these days. Can you take a sequence of pictures on a sunny day, starting with morning frost on the stones and continuing till sunset? Once an hour would do.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Sarsen is darker than the Blue. It would be warmer.

    ReplyDelete