I always like when I learn something new about something I thought I understood pretty well. Take this recent challenge question from Scientific American:
Why is the South Pole colder than the North Pole?
I thought the South Pole was colder than the North Pole simply because the South Pole is located on the center of a continent and since land loses heat much more quickly than the ocean, it was colder. This answer was partially correct, but there is a simpler, more obvious reason. It turns out Antarctica is 9000 ft higher in altitude than the arctic ocean. Now this isn't the first time I've heard that, but it's the first time I stopped and thought about it. That elevation is almost 4000 ft higher than Denver, Colorado. It's almost two-thirds the altitude of Tibet. No wonder it's colder.
Land mass
