ATMOSPHERE NERD WORDS

ATMOSPHERE Defintion: The envelope of gases that surrounds the planet. Example: Earth’s atmosphere is a thin layer of gases on the Earth’s surface. Imagine that you have an apple, if you breathe on the apple, you have essentially just modeled what our atmosphere is like. Why do you think this is an example?

ALTITUDE  Definition: Altitude or elevation, is the distance above sea level. Altitude and Air Pressure are indirectly related.  What do you think that means?  In general air pressure decreases as altitude increases. Example: Compare the beach and the mountains. Which one is more elevated?

COMPOSITION OF THE ATMOSPHERE Earth’s atmosphere is made of a mixture of atoms and molecules of different kinds. Earth’s atmosphere is made up of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, water vapor, and many other gases, as well as particles of liquids and solids. Take a look at the picture, which gas is the most abundant? Nitrogen is the most abundant gas in the atmosphere. It makes up a little more than three fourths of the air we breathe. Each nitrogen molecule consist of two nitrogen atoms. LET’s MAKE ONE.

OXYGEN MAKES UP 21% OF EARTH’S ATMOSPHERE Oxygen: is the most second abundant gas in the atmosphere, it makes up less than one fourth of the volume. Why is oxygen important? Plants and animals take oxygen directly from the air and use it to release energy from their food. Can you think of other processes that oxygen is involved in? -Burning of fuel in your car even on the candles of your birthday cake, all involve oxygen. Let’s make an oxygen molecule.

OZONE  Let’s make an Ozone Molecule! What does it look like compared to a molecule of Oxygen.  Definition: Ozone is a form of oxygen hat has three oxygen atoms in each molecule instead of the usual two.

OZONE LAYER  The ozone layer resides in the stratosphere and surrounds the entire Earth.  UV-B radiation (280- to 315- nanometer (nm) wavelength) from the Sun is partially absorbed in this layer. As a result, the amount of UV-B reaching Earth’s surface is greatly reduced.  Why is absorbing the Sun’s radiation a good thing?

CARBON DIOXIDE PRESENT IN ONLY SMALL AMOUNTS OF THE EARTH’S ATMOSPHERE LESS THAT 1%  Let’s make a carbon dioxide molecule! How does this compare to ozone and oxygen?  Each molecule of carbon dioxide has one carbon atom and two atoms of oxygen.  Carbon Dioxide is essential to life. Plants must have carbon dioxide to produce food. Carbon dioxide is given off as a waste product.

WATER VAPOR  Definition: water Vapor is water in the form of a gas.  Found in the water cycle. It plays a very important role when we are talking about Earth’s Weather.  Example: Clouds form from water vapor 

AIR PRESSURE Think Tank: Does air have mass? Write what you think in your Interactive notebooks. We are going to conduct a mini demonstration lab to find out the answer.

AIR PRESSURE  Definition: The force pushing on an area or surface is known as pressure. The weight of the atmosphere exerts a force on surfaces. So Air pressure is the result of the weight of a column of air pushing down on an area.  Air Pressure can change from DAY TO DAY.  We measure air pressure using a barometer.  Measure in units of millibars.

AIR DENSITY  Although it may seem like air has no mass, we know that not to be true.  Definition: The amount of mass in a given volume of air is its density.  D=mass/volume