How does the sun's energy transfer to Earth?

It's a good question. Standing outside, feeling the sun warming your skin, it is easy to assume that the sun radiates heat the same way as a burning fire warms your hands, however this is not the case. read more

When that light reaches the surface of earth (and every other surface that the light reaches, such as structures, animals, us etc), some of that light energy warms the surface that it hits, which then radiates that heat back into the surrounding environment via low frequency energy light energy waves - heat ie convection. read more

So much energy is released through the reactions that some of it still can reach to the earth, even though the earth is millions of miles away from the sun. The heat energy usually reaches earth in the form of light, and many of the sun's rays are in the ultraviolet spectrum. The transfer of heat in this way is known as thermal radiation. read more