Ch. 14, p. 402 #
1-3, 5, 7-11, 14, 15
1.
Distiguish
between weather and climate.
A. Weather refers to the state of the
atmosphere
for a short period of time. It is constantly changing. By
contrast,
climate is a composite of weather based on many years of weather
records.
Although they are not the same, both are measured using the same
elements
below (in #2).
2. List the basic elements of weather and climate.
A. The elements of weather and climate are
those
quantities or properties that are measured regularly and include:
a)
air temperature, b) humidity, c) type and amount of clouds, d)type and
amount
of precipitation, e) air pressure, and f) wind speed and direction.
3. What are the two major components of clean, dry air?
A. Nitrogen (~79%) and oxygen (~21%)
5. What source is responsible for the most pollution?
A. It is the burning of fossil fuels
(deisel,
gasoline) in transportation.
7. (a) Why is ozone important to life on Earth?
A. It absorbs damaging ultraviolet
radiation
from the sun. If ozone were not present, our planet would be
uninhabitable
for most life as we know it.
(b) What is the most serious threat to human health of a decrease
in
the stratosphere's ozone?
A. It would probably be an increase in the
incidence
of skin cancer.
8. The atmosphere is divided vertically into four layers on the
basis
of temperature. List the names of these layers in order (from
lowest
to highest) and describe how temperature changes in each layer.
A.
troposphere: temperatures decreases with altitude
stratosphere: temperatures increases with altitude
mesosphere: temperatures decreases with altitude
thermosphere: temperatures increases with altitude
9. Why do temperatures increase in the stratosphere?
A. Temperatures rise in the stratosphere
because
ozone, which absorbs ultraviolet radiation, is concentrated in this
layer.
10. Briefly explain the primary cause of the seasons.
A. The seasons are caused by the yeaerly
variation
in the altitude of the sun and length of daylight due to the
inclination
of Earth's axis affecting the amount of solar energy received at
Earth's
surface.
11. Briefly explain the
primary cause of the seasons.
A. The seasons occur because
Earth's axis is inclined and remains parallel with itself during the
revolution of Earth about the Sun. The result is that the
intensity and duration of sunlight, and hence atmospheric heating,
varies throughout the year at any particular place.
14. Distinguish between heat and temperature.
A. Heat is the total kinetic
energy of all the atoms and molecules that make up a substance.
Temperature refers to intensity -- measure of the average kinetic
energy of the individual atoms or molecules within a substance.
15. Describe the three basic mechanisms of heat transfer.
A. Concduction is the
transfer of heat through matter by molecular activity, whereas
convection refers to heat transferred by mass movement within a
substance. Radiation, the method of heat transfer between the Sun
and Earth, is the transfer of heat through space by electromagnetic
waves.
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3/12/2004
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