What does each item used in the experiment represent in the actual greenhouse effect on Earth? For instance, the light used in the experiment represents the Sun. What does the bottom of the box, air in the box, and plastic wrap each represent in the greenhouse effect?

In a typical school experiment designed to demonstrate the greenhouse effect, various items are employed to represent different components of the Earth's greenhouse system:

1. The bottom of the box: This represents the Earth's surface—land, oceans, and other features. This is where sunlight gets absorbed and then radiated as heat.

2. The air in the box: This stands in for the Earth's atmosphere, which is composed of gases including nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and water vapor. In the real-world greenhouse effect, certain gases trap heat, similar to how the air in the box will trap heat during the experiment.

3. The plastic wrap: The plastic covering acts as an analogue to the Earth's atmosphere that permits sunlight to enter but also traps some of the heat that gets radiated from the surface, in a similar way to greenhouse gases like CO2 and water vapor. It allows light (shortwave radiation) in, which warms the ground, and then prevents some of the resulting heat (longwave radiation) from escaping.