This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
“I've lived in good climate, and it bores the hell out of me. I like weather rather than climate.”
John Steinbeck
Part 1
1. Define weather and climate. "Climate helps you decide what clothes to buy; weather helps you decide what clothes to wear."
Anonymous
Weather
Weather is the day-to-day state of the atmosphere, and its short-term (minutes to weeks) variation.
It refers to the general mix of events daily in our atmosphere such as its temperature, pressure, water content, rainfall and humidity.
It is also the instantaneous state of the atmosphere, or the sequence of the states of the atmosphere as time passes.
It is also the state of the atmosphere at any place at any moment. Everyday, weather events are recorded and predicted by meteorologists. (www.abclocal.go.com)
Climate
Climate is usually defined as an ensemble of all the states of the atmosphere at a place experienced in the course of some large but finite time interval (approximately 30 years) and controls the weather.
It is defined as statistical weather information that describes the variation of weather at a given place for a specified interval. It represents the synthesis of weather of a locality averaged over some period plus statistics of weather extremes.
It is also the average weather pattern in a place over many years.
2. Explain what air pressure is and how it is formed.
"In Korea, General Van Fleet publicly surmised that more air pressure might force the Reds to
sign a truce.” Today Newspaper
(www.hko.gov.hk)
Definition of air pressure
Atmospheric pressure refers to the pressure at any point in the Earth’s atmosphere.
Atmospheric pressure is defined as the force per unit area exerted against a surface by the weight of the air above that surface. In the diagram below, the pressure at any point “X" increases as the weight of the air above it increases and vice versa.
If the number of air molecules above a surface increases, there are more molecules to exert a force on that surface and thus, the pressure increases.
How is air pressure formed?
Air pressure is the force exerted on you by the weight of air molecules. Although air molecules cannot be seen, they still have weight and take up space. Since there is space between air molecules, air can be easily compressed to fit in a smaller volume.
3. Name the instrument used to measure air pressure and the SI unit to measure air pressure.
“Well we can try to measure democracy, just as you measure temperature with a thermometer or
air pressure with a barometer. “ Hugo Chavez
The barometer
m
Atmospheric pressure is measured with an instrument called a barometer, which is why atmospheric pressure is also referred to
as barometric pressure.
(www.stuffintheair.com)
The Pascal
The Pascal (Pa) is the SI (International System of TiUnits) unit of pressure or stress. It is equivalent to one Newton per square meter. In everyday life, the hectopascal (1 hPa
= 100 Pa0 is most commonly used. One hectopascal corresponds to about 1‰ of atmospheric pressure (near sea level).
4. Explain the formation of wind
Kites rise highest against the wind, not with it.” Winston Churchill
As the earth is affected by unequal amount of heat energy from the sun, the state of the
air would differentiate between different regions. Warm air expands and thus rises
up while cold air condenses and sinks, resulting in the flow of air and thus forms
wind. In meteorology, wind means the horizontal motion of airflow.