Air and Chapter 5

Atmosphere
CONTEXT AREA
■ Our Earth is surrounded by a shield, a blanket and a filter. We call it the atmosphere.
■ The atmosphere contains the air that we breathe, produces our weather, blocks out harmful
radiation from the Sun, provides valuable materials for our society, and retains heat so we don’t
freeze at night. Our atmosphere causes the blue colour we see in the sky, and which space
travellers see when they look back at Earth.
■ The atmosphere is fragile. Pollution is changing it. This will change the lives of all of us. We need
to know and understand the air and the atmosphere.

PRESCRIBED FOCUS AREAS

4.1 identifies historical examples of how scientific knowledge has changed people’s understanding of
the world
4.3 identifies areas of everyday life that have been affected by scientific developments
4.4 identifies choices made by people with regard to scientific developments
4.5 describes areas of current scientific research

DOMAINS
KNOWLEDGE AND VALUES AND ATTITUDES
UNDERSTANDING 4.23 demonstrates confidence and a willingness to
4.9.4 the atmosphere make decisions and take responsible actions
a identify gases that comprise the greater 4.25 recognises the relevance and importance of life-
percentage of air and explain the difference long learning and acknowledges the continued
between Earth’s atmosphere and space impact of science in many aspects of everyday life
b describe the importance of atmospheric 4.26 recognises the role of science in providing
gases, including ozone and greenhouse gases, information about issues being considered and in
to life on Earth increasing understanding of the world around them
4.27 acknowledges their responsibility to conserve,
protect and maintain the environment for the future
SKILLS
4.14 follows a sequence of instructions to undertake a
first-hand investigation
4.16 accesses data from identified secondary sources
4.17 evaluates the relevance of data and information
4.19 draws conclusions based on information available
4.21 uses creativity to suggest plausible solutions to
familiar problems
4.22 undertakes a variety of individual and team tasks
with guidance
CONCEPTS
Air pressure
The discovery of air pressure
Our layer of air
Atmosphere and climate
Disturbing the atmosphere
The greenhouse effect
Testing for common gases
Explanation using the particle idea
Examples of air pressure in action
History of ideas concerning air pressure
Process of discovery and invention
Composition and structure of the atmosphere
How people find out about past climate
~ and La Nina
El Nino ~
How people change the atmosphere
Thinning of the ozone layer
What is causing the Earth to become warmer
93
 5.1
Is air real?
We live in an ocean of air. It is all around us. An
empty jar is not really empty, because it contains
air. It is easy to forget that air exists.
How could you show that air exists? There are
many mini-experiments involving air, some of
which are drawn below.
Your teacher will divide your class into groups,
and ask your group to demonstrate to the class
one of the mini-experiments shown. Your group
will have to explain to the class how your mini-
experiment shows that air does exist. Select one
person in your group as the speaker, and one
person to show the experiment. The class will ask
you questions about your mini experiment. Try to
think of some hard questions to ask the
other groups.

AIM: To show that air exists

EXPERIMENT

1 Explain why water does not go 2 Explain what you see when 3 Explain what happens when
into the flask. you tip water into the flask. you ‘pour’ the bubble from one
water being water being beaker to the other.
poured from poured from
a beaker fish tank filled
a beaker
with water

filter funnel
ball of
cotton wool
tightly fitting cork

conical flask
conical flask

pocket of air beaker filled

inside beaker with water
4 Explain why water will not fill 5 Explain why the ping pong balls
the tube. move along the table. 7 Explain what happens when
you blow up a paper bag.
cork to seal Explain why the paper bag
end of tube tears when you crush it quickly.
pour water
in this end

6 Explain what is needed to

make a whistle.

bicycle horn

transparent sports
whistle
plastic tube
mouth whistle

94
 AIR AND ATMOSPHERE 95

8 Explain why a blown up 9 Explain why a bike pump will 10 Explain why you can take
balloon is heavier than an blow up a beach ball. these tissues underwater
empty balloon. and not get them wet.
tissues

water

blown up
balloon not balloon
blown up

beaker

11 Explain how the balloons can 12 Explain why the two pieces of
hold up the table. paper do not hit the ground
at the same time.
CHECKPOINT:

QUESTIONS EXTENSION QUESTIONS

Talk these questions over with your group and teacher.
Work in the same group to answer these questions.
4 What is suffocation? What can you do to stop young
1 List all the evidence you can to show that air really
children from suffocating themselves when they are
does exist.
playing?
2 What is meant by these words? (You might have to
5 What is CPR? Why is it important to give CPR
look them up in a dictionary.)
quickly? What are the breathing rates for CPR if one
a inflated and deflated, as in balloons
person is performing CPR? What if there are two
b pneumatic, as in a pneumatic tyre.
people performing it?
3 Write, in your own words, how air is important in
the following situations.
a A bike with b A scuba diver
a flat tyre

A paramedic performing CPR

c A parachutist d Propeller-driven
aeroplane
 5.2
Looking into air
Air is essential for our survival. Air is a mixture of
the gases we need to live. We need oxygen to
release the energy in our food, and plants need
carbon dioxide for making food. The water
vapour in air forms clouds and rain. The gases in
dry air are:
■ Nitrogen, formula N2, 78.0% of the total
volume
■ Oxygen, formula O2, 21.0% of the total
volume
■ Argon, formula Ar, 0.9% of the total volume
■ All other gases, 0.1% of the total volume

AIM: To test for some common gases

EXPERIMENT

Follow the instructions in the drawings to make shows you what do to. After you have completed
oxygen, carbon dioxide and hydrogen. Do not start the experiment, tidy your bench and write the
until your teacher explains the safety issues and results in your note book.

3 Place the smouldering

Making oxygen
1 Burn the end of an icy
pole stick in a flame. Shake it
until the flame goes out and
the wood smoulders.
Do not breathe the smoke.
stick into the test tube.
The stick will burn
2 Pour 5 mL of hydrogen peroxide brightly until the oxygen
solution into a large test tube. is used up. Never point
Add a small grain of manganese a test tube towards
dioxide from a spatula. other people.

Making and testing oxygen

Making carbon dioxide

1 In a large test tube add 2 cm
dilute hydrochloric acid and 10
marble chips.
Push in a bored cork with a
30 cm long delivery tube.
2 Place the other end of the
delivery tube into a large test
tube of lime-water.
Don’t let it splash out. Lime-water
will turn milky if carbon dioxide
is present.
3 The same result is obtained
if you gently blow bubbles into
lime-water. The carbon dioxide
is in your breath. It is formed
inside the cells of your body.

Making and testing carbon dioxide

Making hydrogen 3 Hold the test tube

2 Hold your hand
between your finger
loosely over the
1 Pour 1cm of dilute and thumb, face it away
top of the test
acid into a small test from everyone, and place
tube. Wait for 15
tube. Place a 2 cm strip a match at the top of
seconds as the thumb
of magnesium into the the test tube. You will
gas builds up.
test tube. first finger hear a ‘pop’ if hydrogen is present.

Making and testing hydrogen

96
 AIR AND ATMOSPHERE 97

The most important of the other gases is carbon globes because it will not react with the white-hot
dioxide, formula CO2. It makes up 0.04% of the filament.
volume of air. Some of the other natural gases in Carbon dioxide is the gas we breathe out, as do
air are neon (Ne), helium (He), methane (CH4), plants and all other living things. Plants use more
nitrous oxide (N2O) and hydrogen (H2). Ozone carbon dioxide than they produce. You can test
(O3) exists high in the atmosphere. for carbon dioxide using lime-water. Lime-water
The important gases in the air have features turns milky when carbon dioxide gas is bubbled
which make them useful to us. through it.
Nitrogen in the air cannot be used by plants or
animals. In factories, nitrogen is combined with
hydrogen atoms to make a compound called
ammonia (formula NH3). Ammonia is used as a
fertiliser, and it can be used to make other
fertilisers and chemicals. Lots of compounds
contain nitrogen atoms. Some examples are
nylon, proteins and explosives.
Oxygen is needed by all plants and animals.
They use it to release the energy in food. Oxygen
is needed to allow substances to burn. Burning is
a good test for oxygen. Oxygen gas makes a Blowing bubbles in lime-water turns it milky. Why?
smouldering stick burst into flame.
Argon is an inert gas. ‘Inert’ means that it does Hydrogen is an explosive gas. It reacts quickly
not react with anything. This means that argon with oxygen to make water and energy. This is
does not form compounds. The uses of argon rely used in the test for hydrogen. Hydrogen gas will
on this fact. Argon is used in welding to shield the ignite in a test tube and make a pop sound.
molten metal from oxygen. It is also put in light

COPY AND COMPLETE

CHECKPOINT:

Air is a mixture of gases. The main gases in dry air are ________, formula N2, ______, formula O2, _____, formula
Ar. The most important of the other _____ is ______ _______, formula CO2.
In factories, ________ is combined with ________ atoms to make the compound called _______ (NH3). Ammonia is
used as a __________, and it can be used to make other ___________ and _________.
Oxygen is needed by all ______ and _______. They use it to _______ the ______ in food. Oxygen is needed to
allow __________ to ____.
Argon is an _____ gas. Argon is used in _______ to shield the molten _____ from ______.
Carbon dioxide is the gas we _______ ___. Hydrogen is an _________ gas.

QUESTIONS
1 Draw up a table for the five gases mentioned in the 4 Astronauts in a tiny space capsule need air to breathe.
‘Copy and complete’ section, using the following In a small space they would quickly run out of oxygen
headings. Leave two lines for the features and uses of and poison themselves with carbon dioxide. Think of a
each gas. way of supplying oxygen to the astronauts and
removing the carbon dioxide.
Name of gas Formula Features and Uses Test (if any)
5 Imagine you could wrap a car in plastic, so that it
2 Write the meaning of these words: formula,
was air-tight. What would happen if you could start
smouldering, ignite, filament, fertiliser.
the ignition of the car?
3 When you blow bubbles through lime-water it turns
6 The remote vehicles used to explore Mars and the
milky. What does this show? What would happen
Moon are powered by electricity. Why is this?
if you could make a mouse blow bubbles in the
same way?
 5.3
Air pressure
As we walk and run we are pushing through an
ocean of air. Even as we sit still there is a huge
amount of air above us being pulled down by
gravity. The force of all this air is called air pressure.
Air is a gas, and its particles are moving in all
directions. So air pressure acts in all directions. It
even pushes outwards and upwards.
When you blow up a balloon, you push air into
it. More air exerts more pressure, and this
stretches the balloon skin. When the pressure of
the air in the balloon exceeds the strength of the
balloon skin, the balloon bursts. All the air particles
have returned to the atmosphere.
A vacuum is a region where there are almost
no gas particles present. This means there is
almost no air pressure. A vacuum can be made in
a juice bottle by removing most of the air.
An empty plastic juice bottle is not really empty.
It contains air. The air pressure inside the bottle is
the same as the air pressure outside the bottle. If
we could remove the air from inside the bottle, it
would be crushed by the air outside. The opposite
is also true: if we could force more air inside the
plastic bottle, it would swell up and stretch.

AIM: To create a fountain

DEMONSTRATION

Your teacher will use a special
flask, which is round and made of
thick glass. It has to be strong
enough to stop it being squashed
by the air pressure. Using a large
test tube works just as well, but it
fills with the fountain of water
much quicker.
1 Boil a small amount of water 2 Remove the flask, and 3 As the water vapour condenses
in a thick glass round bottom hold it upside down to liquid water there is a shortage
flask. When the water boils, with the glass tube in of air and gases inside the flask.
water vapour coloured water. Air pressure pushes water up
takes the place inside the flask.
of air inside
the flask.

AIM: To crush a can

Your teacher will demonstrate
this to you first. Make sure you
know the safety precautions
before you start.You will, of
course, need some empty soft
drink cans. Don’t forget to
recycle them when you are
finished.
SAFETY PRECAUTIONS
1 Don’t touch the hot can with
your fingers. Use crucible
tongs, heat gloves, mitts, or a
thick rag.
2 Turn off the flame before
trying to remove the can.
3 As the can is crushed, it
makes a loud noise.
4 Do not drop the can, as hot
water may splash out.
The fountain experiment
1 Place 1 cm of water in an 2 Using crucible tongs, remove the can from the heat
‘empty’ soft drink can. Boil the and turn it upside down into a trough of water. This
water until lots of steam is seen. cools the water vapour, and stops air from getting into
the can. There is a shortage of air inside the can.
steam, tiny
droplets of very
liquid water quickly
water vapour
water liquid,
boiling
The can is crushed by the force of air on the outside of
the can, which is pushing inwards. We say that the can
has imploded.
Crushing a can using air pressure

98

This can be explained if we show the size of air
pressure with arrows.
air out
Pumping air from a plastic bottle
air in
Pumping air into a plastic juice bottle
There is another way of removing air. It is done
by boiling some water inside a can. As the water
boils, the water pushes out most of the air. (See the
experiment on page 98.) When the water vapour
cools and condenses back to water liquid, there is a
COPY AND COMPLETE
CHECKPOINT:
As we walk and run we are _______ through an ocean of ___. Even as we sit still there is a huge amount of ___
above us being pulled down by _______. The _____ of all this air is called ___ ________.
Air is a ___, and its particles are moving in ___ __________. So air pressure acts in ___ __________. It even
pushes ________ and _______.
We use air ________ every ___. Drinking with a _____ uses ___ ________. Sucking is ________ low ___ ________
inside your _____.
QUESTIONS
1 What causes air pressure? How can you increase it?
How can you decrease it?
2 a Use the idea of air particles and air pressure to
describe why a balloon gets larger as you blow it up.
b If you keep blowing up a balloon it will burst.
Explain.
3 A partly filled balloon is placed inside a large strong
jar, as shown in the drawing. Then the air is pumped
out by an air pump. The balloon gets larger, and
soon fills most of the space in the jar. Explain what
is happening. Copy the diagrams on the right, and
draw arrows on them to represent the amount of air
pressure.
AIR AND ATMOSPHERE 99
shortage of air. The air pressure outside the can is
greater than the air pressure inside the can, and so the
can is crushed. This is the idea behind the experiment.
We use air pressure every day. Every time you
blow, such as into a party toy, you increase the
amount of air inside it. This is an increase in air
pressure, and it causes the coiled up paper tube to
be extended. Drinking with a straw uses air
pressure. You create a region of low pressure inside
your mouth, and air pressure does the rest.
Sucking is creating low air pressure inside your
mouth.
A vacuum cleaner does not have a vacuum. It
works because a fan causes low air pressure in the
cleaning head. Air moves in to balance the air
pressure. The moving air picks up dust and dirt,
just like dust being blown around on a windy day.
The dirt is removed, and the filtered air is returned
to the atmosphere.
The wavy lines on a weather map show air
pressure. They are called isobars, and join places
with equal air pressure. An ‘H’ represents a high
pressure area, and an ‘L’ represents low pressure.
Air pressure is measured using a barometer.
Normal air pressure is 1013 hectopascals.
4 Write an explanation of why the fountain experiment
works and the drink can is crushed.
5 What is the connection between a vacuum and a
vacuum cleaner?
air pump air pump
Balloon in a bell jar experiment
reduced air
pressure
normal
air
pressure
Balloon in a bell jar experiment
 5.4
The discovery of air pressure
It took a long time to convince people that air was
real and that it did exist. But there were still
problems. Many people believed that air did not
have any weight. The famous Italian scientist
Galileo was the first person to weigh air, in the
early 1600s.
Another problem was whether a vacuum could
exist. A vacuum is a space with almost no air in
it. Every time anyone had tried to make an air
pump they had failed. So most people thought
that a vacuum could not exist.
In 1640 a group of workmen dug a deep well.
A well is hole in the ground which has water at
the bottom of it. The well was 13 metres deep, but
the pump would only raise water 10 metres.
Galileo, the most famous scientist of his time, was
asked to investigate. He could not explain why
the pump would only pump 10 metres.
It was a student and friend of Galileo named
Evangelista Torricelli (‘Torry-chelly’) who solved
the mystery. The year was 1643. Torricelli filled a
long glass tube with the heavy liquid metal called
mercury, and then turned it upside down.
Mercury stayed in the tube to a height of 760
mm. Even when the tube was set at an angle, the
height of the mercury was 760 mm. Torricelli
reasoned that since water is 131-2 times lighter than
mercury, a column of water would be 131-2 times
Torricelli with his famous tube of mercury
higher than a column of mercury. And it was. It
was about 10 metres, the height that water can be
pumped using only air pressure.
Torricelli gave the correct explanation for the
failure of the pump. He said that the air pressed
100
on the surface of the water, but only enough to
lift it 10 metres. Soon Torricelli’s tube inverted
over mercury became known as a barometer, and
it was the only way of measuring air pressure.
Torricelli had also made a vacuum. The space
above the column of mercury or water contained
no air, and so it was a vacuum. But it was hard to
study a vacuum inside a glass tube. A vacuum
could not be studied properly until better air
pumps were invented.
In 1644 a French scientist named Blaise Pascal
heard about air pressure. He heard that people
lived at the bottom of an ocean of air, which
pushes down on everything with a force called air
pressure. Pascal realised that if the height of air
above us was less, the air pressure should be less.
He tested it on a church tower, but he could not
see any difference. So why not try something
taller, like a mountain?
Pascal lived near a mountain that was 1000
metres high. He was too sick to do the experi-
ment, so his friends did it for him. Pascal made
two identical mercury barometers, and on the
day of the experiment they both showed a height
of 671 mm of mercury. One person stayed at the
bottom of the mountain during the day, and took
measurements of the air pressure at regular
intervals. The others walked to the top of the
mountain, measuring the air pressure as they
went. At the top of the mountain, the pressure
was 589 mm. When they walked to the bottom of
the mountain, the pressure was again 671 mm.
The pressure on the barometer that had stayed at
the bottom of the mountain stayed at 671 mm.
They tried the experiment many times on sunny
days and foggy days, in buildings and in the open,
and they swapped the barometers with each
other. The results were always the same.
This experiment convinced Pascal that Galileo
was correct. Air did have weight, and the weight
of the air above us is pressing down all the time.
Torricelli’s barometer could be used to measure
air pressure. Air pressure got less as you walked
up mountains, so the barometer could be used to
measure the height of mountains.
In 1632 Otto von Guericke became the Mayor
of the German city of Magdeburg. Von Guericke
did science experiments as his hobby. He made a
water barometer like that made by Torricelli. Von

Guericke’s barometer consisted of brass tubes
joined together so that they were 10 metres tall.
The bottom of the column stood in a container of
water. At the top of the column of water was a glass
bulb with the outline of a wooden person. Von
Guericke hid all of the tube and base, except for the
wooden figure floating in the water at the top.
When the weather was fine, the air pressure was
high and the wooden figure could be seen. When
the weather was poor the air pressure dropped and
the wooden figure disappeared. Some people
thought von Guericke was clever, but others
believed he was involved with magic and the
supernatural.
In 1650 von Guericke made an efficient air pump.
He tried to pump the air out of a wooden barrel, but
he could hear the air hissing in. He then made a
copper globe, but it collapsed with a loud bang.
His most famous experiment showed the strength
of air pressure. He made two brass hemispheres
which joined together exactly. A leather ring, soaked
in wax, stopped air from seeping through the join
between the hemispheres. The whole sphere was
45 cm in diameter. He pumped the air out of the
hemispheres with his air pump, and tried to pull
them apart. A team of 16 horses in a tug of war, eight
pulling each way, could not separate them. The half
spheres he used in this experiment are now called
the Magdeburg hemispheres. News of his experiment
spread quickly. The Emperor Ferdinand III heard about
this and commanded von Guericke to show it to him.
Again sixteen strong horses were used, and they
finally pulled the hemispheres apart. There was a
loud bang. This was the air rushing into the space
where there had been no air. Later that day von
Guericke showed the Emperor an easier way of
pulling the hemispheres apart. He opened the tap,
CHECKPOINT:
QUESTIONS
1 Rank these events in time order:
a Otto von Guericke builds a water barometer
b Pascal and his friends measure air pressure
c Torricelli makes the first barometer
d Otto von Guericke demonstrates the strength of
air pressure
e Galileo weighs air
2 How could you make a Torricellean vacuum?
3 After Pascal’s friends had measured the air pressure
at the top and bottom of a mountain, they swapped
the barometers and repeated the experiment. Why
did they do this?
4 Why did Pascal find no change in air pressure in the
church steeple compared to the ground?
AIR AND ATMOSPHERE 101
and listened as the air hissed in. Then the two
halves just fell apart.
Von Guericke had made a vacuum inside the
hemispheres. The force of the air pushed the two
Magdeburg hemispheres together with a lot of
force. Later people made better air pumps, and
used them to study other features of gases.
Von Guericke’s great experiment: the Magdeburg hemispheres
Air pressure is measured using a barometer.
Mercury barometers are tall, and contain mercury.
Mercury is a cumulative poison which means it
builds up in your body over time. The most
popular barometer used today is an aneroid
barometer. It looks like a clock. It consists of a
hollow metal container, with most of the air
pumped out. The hollow container has an elastic
lid, which is connected to an indicating pointer. As
the air pressure increases it squeezes harder on the
container and the needle moves. The needle moves
against a scale that records the air pressure in units
such as hectopascals (hPa).
An altimeter is a device that measures the height
above ground level or sea level. Early versions in
aircraft measured the pressure of the air, and had
to be calibrated before take-off. Newer altimeters
use GPS satellites.
5 Why can a barometer be used to measure the height
of a mountain?
6 What is an altimeter? How do they work?
7 How is an aneroid barometer different to a Torricelli
barometer? Which is the most convenient and safest
to use?
8 Air pressure at sea level is 101.3 kilopascals (kPa)
and 1013 hectopascals (hPa). Suggest the origin of
the unit name Pascal.
9 Torricelli explained why a water pump could only
pump water up 10 metres.
a How would this height change if there was greater
air pressure?
b How would this height change if the pump was
pumping a liquid twice as heavy as water?
 5.5
Our layer of air
The layer of air around the

(merges into space)

Earth extends far beyond the
Earth. It is called the atmos- communication satellites
(36 000 km height)
phere. The atmosphere is vital

exosphere
for our survival, because it
800
controls our weather, protects
us from dangers from space,
carries sounds and sustains all
life. 480
The Moon has no atmos-
phere, so there is no wind, no shimmering lights aurora caused by particles
noise, no life and no blue sky. from the Sun, seen near

thermosphere
Stars are visible both night and north and south poles
day. Tiny meteorites crash into
the surface. Their craters are not orbit of space shuttle +600
200
weathered or eroded. The foot- ionosphere part of
prints left by the Apollo air is ionised by
astronauts will last for one or energy from Sun
two million years before being –76

Ionosphere
80
covered in dust.
radio waves

sphere
meso-
The atmosphere is thin in bounce off this
comparison to the size of the region meteors ‘burn up’ in
atmosphere +10 0.26
Earth. If the Earth were the size 50
of a party balloon, the atmos-
phere would only be as thick as –10 0.93
32

stratosphere
the rubber skin of the balloon. ozone layer
3.2
24
The atmosphere is thickest at
‘ozone layer’–small
ground level, and thins out as amounts of ozone gas –57 10.7
you go higher above the surface. 16 mixed with air. Thickest
There is not really a top to the at 24 km above earth
atmosphere. The gases just get –60
11
less and less until you reach the
jet airliners
emptiness of space. The atmos- –55 36
8
troposphere
phere is made of air, while space highest clouds
Mt Everest
is where there is no air. fog and clouds highest mountain
The atmosphere has several are made of thunder storm clouds
layers. The bottom layer of the tiny droplets 3 km breathing becomes
of water 2.2 km harder as air becomes thinner
atmosphere is called the tropos-
Mount Kosciuszko 20 101.3
phere. Its thickness varies from
0
8 km over the poles to about
Height (km) Tem p Pressure Name
18 km over the equator. All our (˚C) (hPa) of layer
weather happens in the tropos- The Earth’s atmosphere
phere. Due to gravity the of winds. Air temperature drops rapidly with increasing altitude, being
troposphere contains about 75 about –60ºC at the top of the troposphere. Because the temperature
per cent of the total mass of the changes suddenly between the higher levels of the atmosphere, these
atmosphere. The composition of layers do not mix very much.
the troposphere is relatively The stratosphere extends from the troposphere up to 50 km above
uniform due to the mixing effect the ground. The temperature changes only slightly with increasing

102
 AIR AND ATMOSPHERE 103

altitude. The composition of the stratosphere is

similar to that of the troposphere, except that there
re
is much less water vapour and much more ozone. io n o s ph e

Ozone is made by energy from the Sun reacting

with oxygen molecules. The entire thickness of

ra
ozone is called the ozone layer. If all the ozone could

di
o
wa
be brought down to the surface of the Earth, it

would be just 3 mm thick. In cities, ozone is a
serious pollutant. It is formed from the chemical
reactions involving the pollution from cars and
burning fuels, and by some old electrical equipment.
Above the stratosphere the temperature again
gets colder. This is the mesosphere, or middle
layer. The minimum temperature is –80ºC.
At an altitude of 80 km there is another abrupt
change in temperature. This is the thermosphere,
a region of ionised gas. Temperatures are very
high due to radiation from the Sun, but the gas
particles are far apart.
At 190 km high you are on the edge of space.
This is where the space shuttles and some satellites
orbit. Communication and other geostationary
satellites are found much further from the Earth.
The top of the atmosphere is called the exos-
phere. There is no sharp boundary that separates
the atmosphere from space. The composition
merges with that of space, which is mainly a very
low concentration of helium and hydrogen.
Ozone is important because it absorbs the
ultraviolet light from the Sun. Less ozone means
more ultraviolet light reaches the Earth, which
would cause more skin cancers in people and
animals, and damage plants. Ozone is destroyed
by chemicals called CFCs, which were once used
ve
s
Earth
surface of
Short-wave radio
transmission
in aerosol (spray) cans, air conditioners and
refrigerators.
The ionosphere is the part of the atmosphere
where charged particles from the Sun have
changed some of the air atoms into ions
(= charged particles). These ions reflect radio
transmissions back to Earth. Short-wave radio
uses this feature to send and receive messages
from the other side of the Earth.
The atmosphere is also a shield and a blanket.
Meteorites and pieces of space junk are vaporised
as they fall through the atmosphere. Only the
largest meteors hit the Earth. The atmosphere also
retains heat, so our days are not boiling hot and
the nights are not freezing cold.

COPY AND COMPLETE

CHECKPOINT:

The atmosphere is vital for our ________, because it controls our _______, protects us from _______ from _____,
carries ______ and ________ all ____.
The atmosphere is ____ in comparison to the ____ of the Earth.
All our _______ happens in the ___________. The entire thickness of _____ is called the _____ _____. In cities,
_____ is a serious _________.
_____ is important because it _______ the ___________ light from the ___.

QUESTIONS i gets warmer as you go higher

1 What is the name of each part of the atmosphere
described below?
a is closest to being a vacuum
b is the thinnest in distance
c has the most ozone
d is 200 km above the Earth
e is where most meteorites burn up
f contains thunderstorm clouds
g reflects radio waves
h has the greatest air pressure
j contains 99% of the atmosphere
2 List five reasons why the atmosphere is essential to
our survival.
3 Adventurers such as Sir Richard Branson and Steve
Fosset flew in balloons at the top of the troposphere.
They travelled in a sealed gondola (a room-like
compartment) on the balloon that was maintained
at near normal air pressure. What would have
happened if the gondola had leaked? Consider
temperature, air pressure and comfort levels in
your answer.
 5.6
Atmosphere and climate
The Earth has been through many changes in clouds of dust it produced caused the global
climate. Just 20 000 years ago much of southern temperature to drop by 0.7°C. The eruption of
Australia was covered with ice. There were large Mt Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991 lowered
glaciers in Victoria and Tasmania. In the past the the global temperature by 1ºC. The eruption of
climate has changed from cold to warm and back the Tambora volcano in Indonesia in April 1815
to cold again many times. was followed by the ‘Year Without Summer’ in
Climate in the past has been studied using 1816, when there was snow in mid-summer
different methods, and the results have been across most of Europe.
combined. The climate in a region can be found
by looking at the growth rings of old trees, going
back through historical records, and looking at
the growth rings in coral. In Antarctica, people
are studying the bubbles of air which were
trapped in snow storms and are now part of the
ice. All of these records show that our climate has
changed many times over thousands of years. The
rate of climate change is now faster than ever
before. Many people believe that this is the result
of modern society.

Dust and ash

from a volcanic
eruption
Temperature change (˚C)

0.75

0.50

0.25

0.00
A scientist with ice core samples in Antarctica
– 0.25
No one is sure why the climate has changed.
– 0.05
But some factors are known. One is that the 1850 1880 1910 1940 1970 2000
Earth does not follow the same path around the
Global temperatures from 1850 to 2000
Sun year after year. Sometimes the Earth is
closer to the Sun than at other times. Sometimes
there is a great difference between summer and The atmosphere is always changing. It
winter. Sometimes the Sun is much more active produces the changes in our weather. But there
than at other times. are large-scale patterns which people are only
Volcanic eruptions can change climate. If an beginning to understand. The most significant of
eruption produces a lot of dust, it can go high in these is El Niño.
the atmosphere and block out the sunlight. Less El Niño (‘Nee-nyo’) is part of a change in water
warmth reaches the ground and the Earth is a temperature and winds in the Pacific Ocean. It
little colder. This is what happened in 1984 after affects Australia, South America, Indonesia, and
the El Chichon volcano in Mexico erupted. The even Africa on the opposite side of the Earth. In

104
 AIR AND ATMOSPHERE 105

Australia El Niño causes drought across most of EL NINO

the continent. With drought come dust storms
and severe bushfires.
The opposite climate event is La Niña. La Niña cold
years in Australia are wet with frequent floods ocean warm
water ocean
and cyclones. water
Weather forecasters and climatologists (people
who study the Earth’s climate) measure the
chance of a wet year or a dry year by using the
Southern Oscillation Index. This is a measure of Winds mainly blow east, bringing Winds blow onto coast,
hot dry desert air to eastern bringing rain to
the difference in temperature in different parts of Australia, causing a drought. South America.
the ocean. A positive value means above-average
rainfall; a negative value means below-average LA NINA
rainfall.
People are now beginning to realise that small warm cool
changes in the atmosphere can have large ocean ocean
water water
consequences. Even pollution can affect the
weather and climate over a large area. El Niño
events are caused by a change of a few degrees in
temperature, and millions of people suffer famine
as a result. The activities of people are changing Wind mainly blows over ocean, Dry winds blow off land,
the atmosphere, and no one knows for certain evaporating water which falls as rain. drought in South America.
Floods and storms are common.
how this will change the Earth’s climate and
environment. El Niño and La Niña

COPY AND COMPLETE

CHECKPOINT:

The Earth has been through many changes in _______. In the past the climate has changed from ____ to ____ and
back to ____ again ____ times.
El Niño is part of a regular ______ in water ___________ and winds in the _______ Ocean. It affects _________,
South _______, _________, and even ______ on the opposite ____ of the Earth. In Australia El Niño causes
_______ across ____ of the continent. The opposite _______ event is __ ____. La Niña years in Australia are ___
with frequent ______ and ________.
People are now beginning to realise that small _______ in the __________ can have large ____________. The
__________ of people are ________ the __________ and no one knows for certain how this will ______ the Earth’s
_______ and ___________.

QUESTIONS
1 a What does a climatologist do?
b What is the Southern Oscillation Index?
2 How do scientists study climates?
3 What is the connection between climate and
weather?
4 How can dust and ash from volcanic eruptions affect
our climate?
5 How do El Niño and La Niña affect our climate?
6 Is there any advantage in knowing in advance when
El Niño and La Niña will occur? Explain.
7 The Sahara Desert in North Africa is a huge sandy
desert. Ten thousand years ago it was covered in
grass and trees. Suggest how the activities of people
and climate change caused this change.
8 What is the trend in temperature shown by the
graph of global temperatures from 1850 to 2000?
Which decade has been the hottest?
 5.7
Disturbing the atmosphere
Pollution is the contamination of our environ-
ment by unnatural or unwanted substances. Air
can be polluted with fumes, smoke, gases and
dust. In London in the winter of 1952, midday
looked like midnight. Smoke and fog combined to
make smog, and hundreds of people died. In
Indonesia in 1997 the smoke from many forest
fires covered some areas for many weeks. On
sunny days in large cities like Sydney and
Melbourne, pollution from car exhausts reacts
with sunlight to form photochemical smog. This is
the brown haze seen over some cities. This smog
is different to smog made from smoke and fog.
There are many causes of changes in the
atmosphere. Some are natural and we have no
control over them. An example is the dust from
volcanic eruptions. Some changes are caused by
the activities of people, and are said to be
anthropogenic (‘an-throw-po-jen-ic’).
There are two major anthropogenic changes in
the atmosphere that are worrying scientists. One is
the destruction of ozone, and the other is the
warming of the atmosphere. This warming, called
the greenhouse effect, is discussed in activity 5.8.
The ozone layer is a region high in the atmos-
phere (see activity 5.5). This region contains the
highest concentration of ozone. Ozone is a special
form of oxygen which absorbs most of the ultra-
violet light from the Sun. Ultraviolet light gives
you a suntan but it can also cause cancer in your
skin. It increases the chances of cancer in animals
and damages plants.
Ozone is being created and destroyed naturally
in the atmosphere all the time. But some gases
In the London smog of
1952, buses had to use
their headlights during
the day
106
made by people have drifted high in the
atmosphere and are destroying the ozone faster
than it can be replaced. The ozone layer is a small
amount of ozone spread through many
kilometres of atmosphere.
In some places over Antarctica there is much
less ozone than normal. The term ‘hole in the
ozone layer’ or ‘ozone hole’ means that there is
less ozone, not no ozone.
The gases that have destroyed the most ozone
are called CFCs, short for chlorofluorocarbons
(claw-row-flew-row-car-bons). They were dev-
eloped for use in air conditioners and refrigerators,
and were then used in aerosol cans, some fire
extinguishers, for making foam coffee cups and
food containers. The use of CFCs has been
banned in most countries, and in other countries
they are being phased out. Special meetings
between countries are held to set targets for CFC
use and to encourage the use of alternatives to
CFCs. The most important agreement has been
the Montreal Protocol. It was signed in September
1987 in the city of Montreal, Canada. The
countries who attended that meeting agreed to
reduce the use of CFCs, and then to stop making
them.
Now, only small amounts of CFCs and other
ozone-depleting substances are being released into
the atmosphere. The ozone layer is slowly
returning to its original thickness. The process will
take up to seventy years, because CFCs take a long
time to break down in the atmosphere. One
molecule of CFC can cause the destruction of hun-
dreds of molecules of ozone, before it is destroyed.
Photochemical smog occurs in large cities like Sydney
 AIR AND ATMOSPHERE 107

In 1995, chemists Sherwood Rowland, Mario The thickness of the ozone layer can be studied
Molina and Paul Crutzen shared the Nobel Prize for from the ground looking up, or from satellites.
finding and explaining the reason for ozone The extent of the problem is shown in the
depletion. satellite maps below.

The four images (below) show the progressive depletion

of ozone over Antarctica. The scale indicates that the
areas with the least amount of ozone are shown in blue
and the areas with the most are shown in red

Ozone levels over Antarctica in September 2004

COPY AND COMPLETE

CHECKPOINT:

Pollution is the _____________ of our environment by _________ or ________ substances. Air can be polluted with
_____, _____, gases and ____.
The _____ layer is a region ____ in the __________. This region contains the _______ _____________ of ozone.
Ozone is a special form of ______ which _______ most of the ___________ light from the ___.
Some gases made by ______ have _______high in the atmosphere and are __________ the ozone ______ than it
can be ________. The term ‘____ in the _____ layer’ means that there is ____ ozone, not __ ozone. The _____ that
have destroyed the most _____ are called ____, short for ___________________.

QUESTIONS
1 What is the difference between an anthropogenic
change and a natural change?
2 Why is the ozone layer important to us?
3 What was the Montreal Protocol?
5 CFCs have caused a lot of environmental damage.
What is this damage and how would it affect us?
6 What is meant by the words ‘a hole in the ozone
layer’?

4 What is the difference between smog in London and 7 What would be the effect of a thinner ozone layer
smog in Sydney? over the region where you live?
 5.8
The greenhouse effect
A greenhouse is used by plant growers in cold
climates who want to grow hot climate plants. A
greenhouse is heated by the energy of the Sun,
and the heat stays inside the greenhouse. All
greenhouses used to be made of glass, but now
many are made of plastic.
Solar energy passes through the atmosphere
and warms the Earth’s surface. Heat then leaves
the Earth’s surface and is radiated back into space.
There is a balance—the amount of heat from the
The main greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide. It
is formed by the burning of fossil fuels such as
coal, petrol, oil and gas. The amount of carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere is steadily increasing
due to the use of fuels by our society. The main
greenhouse gases are shown in the pie
graph below.
carbon dioxide
64%

Sun equals the amount of heat radiated back

into space. CFCs nitrous oxide
11% methane
Some heat is held by the atmosphere before it 19%
6%

goes back into space. It is warmed by the heat The greenhouse gases
from the Earth’s surface. Without the atmosphere
These gases are produced by the activities of
the temperature every night would drop to
people. The next pie graph shows which
–100°C, and in the day would rise to +80°C. The
activities cause the greatest effects.
atmosphere is like a blanket, or like the air in a
Agriculture
greenhouse. 13%
Some gases made by people have upset this Deforestation
balance. They stay in the atmosphere and absorb 14%

and hold the heat which should be radiated into Burning

fossil fuels
space. As a result the atmosphere is warming and 49%
Human activities Industrial
this is warming the land and oceans. It is called contributing to processes
the enhanced greenhouse effect, or simply the greenhouse gas
24%

greenhouse effect. production

Sun Sun

glass reflects back the

heat from plants and greenhouse gases
the greenhouse absorb some of the
heat so it stays in the
atmosphere
glass allows solar
energy through

atmosphere trapped heat

allows solar
energy through
trapped heat

Earth

How a greenhouse stays hot The Earth as a greenhouse

108
 AIR AND ATMOSPHERE 109

Many scientists have tried to predict the impact
of the greenhouse effect. Their findings are
summarised in the diagram below. The most
important is a change in climate and a rise in the
sea level.
The greenhouse effect is a global problem. It
impacts on every country in the world. The first
major conference about the greenhouse effect and
global warming was the Earth Summit. It was
organised by the United Nations and held in the
city of Rio de Janiero in June 1992. It aimed to set
limits on the amount of greenhouse gases that each
country could make. The next summit meeting was
held in Kyoto in 1997. The governments of many
countries signed a document to show a
commitment to reducing greenhouse emissions, to
the level in 1990. This is called the Kyoto Protocol.
If people and countries can reduce the amounts of
greenhouse gases they release into the atmosphere
then the greenhouse effect may not be so severe.
What can be done to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions? As a society we can:
■ use less fossil fuels — travel by public transport,
have more fuel-efficient cars
■ increase insulation in houses and buildings so
they need less heating and cooling
■ replace fossil fuels with renewable fuels, such as
wind energy.
Even at home you can make a difference. Turn
off electrical appliances that aren’t being used, walk
or ride instead of travelling by car, and plant trees.
Trees use carbon dioxide as they grow, which they
remove from the air. A forest of trees can soak up
a huge amount of carbon dioxide.

Coral reefs killed Coastal communities will be Changed climate patterns will More frequent and severe
by bleaching, caused flooded as sea level rises. change some farmland into desert. storms and cyclones.
by warmer water.
Sea level rises as polar Warmer temperatures
ice melts and warmer melt ice and snow
oceans expand in size. on mountains.
The oceans will rise About 50% will
about 48 cm from melt from 2000
2000 to 2100. to 2100.
Some crop yields will increase, More diseases as
especially tropical crops. Climate insects breed
change will mean that different better in warm
crops have to be grown. moist climates.

Consequences of the greenhouse effect

CHECKPOINT:

COPY AND COMPLETE

Solar energy passes through the __________ and _____ the Earth. Heat ______ the Earth and is ________ back into
space. There is a _______ — heat from the ___ ______ heat ________ back into _____.
Some _____ made by ______ have upset this _______. They ______ and hold the ____ which should be ________
into space. As a result the __________ is _______. It is called the greenhouse ______.
The main __________ gas is carbon _______. It is formed by the _______ of fossil _____ such as ____, ______, oil
and ___.

QUESTIONS
1 Why is it important that there is a heat balance 5 How will a warmer Earth affect the area where you
around the Earth? live?
2 What is meant by the greenhouse effect? 6 How can planting trees help alter the Earth’s climate?
3 Why is so much carbon dioxide produced by our 7 What can your school do to help reduce the emission
society? of greenhouse gases? Consider transport, heating
4 What is the Kyoto Protocol? What did it aim to and cooling, gardens, even the times you come to
achieve? school.
 Review and Research
Review questions
Answer these questions in your note book. The
answers are in the previous pages.
1 Which of these statements are true or false?
a Air is a pure gas which surrounds the Earth.
b When air crushes a can, we say that the can
has imploded.
c The atmosphere is the layer of air surrounding
the Earth.
d There is no atmosphere on the Moon.
e A region with little or no air pressure is called
a vacuum.
f Air has no weight at all.
g The atmosphere blocks radio transmissions.
h The protective gas destroyed by ozone is CFC.
i The warming of the Earth is due to the
greenhouse effect.
j El Niño brings rain to Australia and America.
2 Name the gases referred to in each question.
a ‘pops’ when ignited
b turns lime-water milky
c absorbs ultraviolet light in the atmosphere
d needed for burning and breathing
e used to fill light globes
f the most common gas in the atmosphere
3 Explain why Luke gets to drink the milk shake
but Tammy can’t drink the fruit juice.
Luke
open sealed
fruit
juice
milk
shake
Why can’t Tammy drink the fruit juice?
4 A pilot flies her light aircraft, with the canopy
open, from sea level to a height of 3000 metres.
How will the following change as she flies
higher and higher?
a altitude
b pressure
c temperature
d amount of oxygen to breathe
5 When you open a can or bottle of soft drink, you
hear a ‘swish’ sound when the seal is broken. Is
this the vacuum rushing out?
110
6 Study the diagram, then explain why the hard
boiled egg squeezes into the flask.
shelled egg
flask
Why does the
egg squeeze into
burning paper the flask?
7 If you fill a glass or jar to overflowing, put a
sheet of thin cardboard over it, and turn it upside
down, the water will stay in the glass—usually!
Take your hand away carefully. Explain why
water stays in the inverted glass, where it
defies gravity.
glass filled
with water
thin
cardboard
How does water
defy gravity?
8 Many people, including lots of teachers, have
Tammy
said: ‘There is no such thing as suction’.
If suction does not exist, what happens when
you ‘suck’? What word or words could you use
instead of suck?
9 Imagine you are watching a science fiction film
called Attack of the Aliens. In one scene a
spacecraft from Earth crashes into a barren rocky
planet far from Earth. The planet has no
atmosphere, but has gravity similar to Earth. The
video shows the spacecraft burning as it flies
towards the surface, you hear a great explosion
when it crashes, and the wreck continues to
burn. The crew drift gently to the surface of the
planet by parachute. They are not wearing
spacesuits, and run behind a rock where they
radio for help.
The planet has no atmosphere, but there are
four things in the video which cannot happen
when there is no atmosphere. What are they?
10 When US astronauts first walked on the Moon in
July 1969, they stood a flag on a short post on
 AIR AND ATMOSPHERE 111

the surface of the Moon. The flag printed at the back of this book, and can be
hung limp. A television commentator photocopied.
suggested the astronauts face a fan towards
the flag to make it flutter. They did not do Altitude Pressure Altitude Temperature
it—why? How are flags on the Moon hung (km) (hPa) (km) (°C)
so that they are not limp? 0 1000 0 20
3 700 5 –10
11 Many people think that the thinning of the
6 480 10 –40
ozone layer is causing the greenhouse effect.
Write a paragraph on each, showing that each 9 330 15 –50
is a separate environmental issue. 12 210 20 –50
15 150 25 –45
12 What do people mean when they write and talk
about living in a greenhouse world? How might 18 85 30 –40
it be different to our world at present? 21 55 40 –10
24 35 50 –15
Extension experiment 27 20 60 –10
AIM: To investigate suction cups 30 12 70 –55
What are the best surfaces for using suction cups? 80 –80
How strong is a suction cup on different surfaces? 90 –70
How long do suction cups hold on? 100 –40
Write a description of:
a how pressure changes with altitude
b how temperature varies with altitude.
spring balance
Research questions
1 How does a water pump work? Draw a diagram
and write an explanation. Two common types
are a lift pump and a force pump.
suction cup
2 Mountaineers sometimes suffer from altitude
glass slab or sickness. What causes it, and what are the
The suction cup sheet of glass
experiment symptoms?
Plan your experiment, and make a list of the Word check
equipment that you will need. Check with your
suffocation nitrogen ozone
teachers that the equipment is available.
ammonia argon hydrogen
To find the force, hold down the glass slab,
lime-water astronaut vacuum
and pull upwards on the spring balance. Measure
pressure barometer troposphere
the force of the suction cup on different surfaces,
stratosphere ultraviolet aurora
and how long before the cup falls off. Use a stop
aerosol El Niño meteorites
watch to find the time before the suction cup ‘falls
climate smog La Niña
off’. Try a variety of materials, such as unpainted
oscillation greenhouse photochemical
wood, glass, plastic and cardboard.
anthropogenic Kyoto Protocol
Write a report in your note book. Include a
Earth Summit chlorofluorocarbon
table of your results, and any conclusions regarding
the use of suction cups on different surfaces. Concept map
Graph question Draw a concept map of the important ideas which
were covered in this chapter.
1 Graph the following data onto a line graph.
There are two graphs, and you can graph both Is air real? Demonstrations to show
onto the one graph paper. The graph paper is that air exists
Looking into air Composition of air