A few days ago
cestdomage721

Air temperature math problem?

Here’s the problem: As dry air moves upward, it expands and in so doing cools at a rate of about 1 degree C for each 100-meter rise, up to about 12 km.

a) if the ground temp. is 20 degrees C, write a formula for the temp at height ‘h’.

b) what range of temps. can be expected if a plane takes off and reaches a max height of 5 km?

Please try and help! I’m not really sure I understand the problem, and it probably seems easier than I think, but please try to help anyway! Thanks.

Top 1 Answers
A few days ago
Anonymous

Favorite Answer

rate of cooling = 1 deg/100 m elevation, or

0.01 deg/m

a) So temp at height h (assuming h is in metres) is

T = 20 – (0.01)*h

b) at a height of 5km or 5000 m the temp will be T = 20 – (0.01)*5000 = -30 Deg C

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