Air Pressure Drama
Air pressure is lower at high altitude, so there are fewer air particles and less oxygen available.
Why is it harder to breathe on Mount Everest than at sea level?
Troposphere
Which atmospheric layer contains the most weather?
Earth’s rotation.
What motion causes day and night?
Transparent
What type of material lets light pass through clearly?
Radiation, conduction, and convection.
What are the three types of heat transfer?
Air pressure decreases.
As altitude increases, what happens to air pressure?
Stratosphere.
Which layer contains the ozone layer?
Earth’s revolution around the Sun.
What motion takes about 365 days?
Opaque
What type of material blocks light?
Radiation
Which type of heat transfer moves energy through space from the Sun to Earth?
30,000 N/m²
What is the pressure?
Pressure = force ÷ area.
It absorbs harmful ultraviolet radiation that can damage living organisms.
What is the ozone layer?
Earth’s axis is tilted 23.5 degrees.
What is the main reason Earth has seasons?
Refraction; light bends when it moves between different materials.
Why does a straw look bent in a glass of water?
Warm air expands and becomes less dense.
Why does warm air rise?
There is less air above you pressing down, so the force from the air above you is lower.
Why does air pressure decrease as altitude increases?
It absorbs harmful radiation, burns up meteoroids, regulates temperature, and provides gases needed for life.
How does the atmosphere protects Earth?
The equator receives more direct sunlight, while sunlight at the poles is spread over a larger area.
Why is the equator warmer than the poles?
Blue light scatters more than other colors in the atmosphere.
Why is the sky usually blue?
Air moves from high pressure to low pressure, creating winds.
How does unequal heating create wind?
Pressure differences cause air to move from high pressure to low pressure, creating wind.
Why air behaves like a fluid?
What is Convection?
Different layers absorb different amounts and types of radiation, causing particle motion and thermal energy to vary.
Why do different atmospheric layers have different temperatures?
Seasons are caused by Earth’s tilt, which changes the angle of sunlight and length of daylight, not by distance from the Sun.
Why is “Earth is closer to the Sun in summer” not the correct explanation for seasons?
Blue light scatters away as night falls, leaving other colors to reach our eyes.
Why do sunsets often look red or orange?
During the day, land heats faster than water. Warm air rises over land, creating low pressure, so cooler air from over the water moves in toward land.
How does solar energy create a sea breeze?
What is Specific Heat?