Water 4.179 S (J/g 0C)
Air 1.01
What is more important is that it is so much more massive
Weight of air 5.15×10to 18 k
Weight of ocean 1.4×10 to 21 kg
It is almost 300 times as heavy
Heat content depends on mass and specific heat. Specific heat means "heat content per kilogram". So if you multiply the two things together you get total heat content for a given temperature.
As has been said:
Mass of the hydrosphere (oceans): 1.4 x 1021 kg.
Mass of the atmosphere: 5.1 x 101? kg
So the water mass is 364 times as great.
Specific heat depends on the way the molecules can store the heat. The molecules can move in a particular direction, spin and vibrate. The shape of the molecule affects how much energy can be stored when it spins, for instance. That is one of the ways specific heats can vary.
Specific heat of sea water: 3993 J kg?1 K?1
Specific heat of air: 1006 J kg?1 K?1
So water has 3.97 times the specific heat.
The combined effect is, therefore: 364 * 3.97
or about 1400 times as great.
Water simply holds heat longer than air.
So, if you live in a city that is on a big lake, the lake will heat up one month after the air heats up, when going into summer, and the lake will cool down one month after the air cools down, going into winter.
The make up of the water is different than the air, so it has something to do with the water's make up.
Specific heat allows it to. For example if you go to the pool at the middle of the day like at noon the water will be cool but if you go to the pool at night it will be pleasantly warm due to all the heat that it absorbed during the day but that heat will be released as the night goes by until the next day when it will be cool again.
The specific heat of water is four times greater than air.
Because water has a much higher heat capacity than air. You can be in a sauna at 160 degrees F or hotter for a long time and just sweat, but sitting in a 160 degree water bath would scald you in a second.
"Update : Why does water have a much higher specific heat than air? "
Mostly because the molecules are packed so much more tightly together.
I think when water is a liquid, there's something like 1300 molecules in the same physical space that would contain only 1 molecule when it's a gas.
Hold it? ... or just "circulating and cooling" it? Maybe it transforms all of that heat into "life energy" into deep ocean life? We know that deep-ocean volcanic activity has a very active plant and animal life around it without the benefit of sunlight.
I would venture to say that plant and animal life in the oceans is far greater than "above surface" plant and animal life.
The water cools when needed.
Because there is more of it. See Jim Z. and Graphicconnection.
Because tall white guys invented the ocean that way.
