A diverse range of questions based on applications of physics in weather and climate, including sea level rise, radar frequencies, aerosols, oceanic circulation, tidal barrages etc.
Isaac Physics is an online study tool developed by the University of Cambridge. Isaac Physics questions are self marking practice questions for secondary school and undergraduate scientists.
Isotrope Concentrations and Ocean Circulation
Radar wavelengths and frequencies
Climate-based questions for students and teachers. A team of students and academics at the University of Oxford developed these Maths for Planet Earth questions.
Learning Objectives
In its acceptance speech at COP26, Egypt celebrated its renewable energy resources:
This is an extract from https://unfccc-cop26.streamworld.de/webcast/closing-plenary-of-the-cop-followed-by-cmp-and-c-2 from 09:20
‘Egypt transitioned from the traditional energy sources to renewable, more sustainable and planet-friendly energy sources…’
One of these resources is the huge Benban solar farm.
Watch the relevant part of the COP26 plenary video and/ or
images from google maps
Discussion point: What is a kWh? (if 1 kWh is the electrical energy converted by a 1 kW appliance used for 1 hour rephrase this in terms of electrical energy generation. See https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z2h4dxs/revision/1 for more detail)
Discussion point: So what is a kWh/ m2?
Extension: Express this answer as a proportion or percentage
(37.2km2 = 37 200 000m2 so 2366 x 37 200 000 = 88,015,200,000 kWh = 88 015.2 GWh = 88.0TWh)
Discuss: kilo, mega, giga, Tera etc.
Extension – write this as a proportion or percentage
Discussion – why so much? Solar panels don’t cover the whole of the ground, solar panels are actually less efficient when they get hot, you can see solar panels, so they must be reflecting some of the Sun’s light, not absorbing it all etc.)
(cost = power (kW ) x time (hours) x price (per kWh).
So value = 3, 800, 000, 000 kWh x 2/52 x 28.34 = £41,420,000.
Discussion – is that surprising?
Why might the quantity of electricity produced actually be different? (We started with an annual value, but the seasons and the weather will actually have an impact on how much is produced in a given week).
The 2022 United Nations climate change conference (27th session of the Conference of Parties – COP27) will be held in Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt, starting on the 7th of November.
In the introduction video screened at the end of COP26 in Glasgow, Egypt celebrated its adaptations and mitigations to climate change. In this resource, students will explore population growth, urbanisation and the greenhouse gas emissions from the construction industry in Egypt.
Resources:
Learning Outcomes
Calculate the best flight time from A to B and reduce greenhouse gas emissions!
The table below represents a cross section through the atmosphere and gives wind speeds (in m/s) in boxes which are 200km long and 1km high.
Your task is to pilot an aircraft, which flies at 230m/s when it is flying in the less dense atmosphere higher than 5km, and 150m/s when it is flying in the more dense atmosphere lower than 5km, from A to B in the shortest time possible.
Remember, flying in the same direction as the wind increases your speed but flying against the wind slows you down.
Map your route on the chart below and then calculate the flight time!
Rules
Some students may find the following table useful:
In this activity students use current data to investigate the UK’s energy sources.
Go to gridwatch.co.uk and use the table and the key at the bottom of the page to complete the following table. This website shows you where the UK’s electric power is coming from and what the total demand (use) is and has been over the past year.
(1 GW = 1 000 000 000W)
Extension
By looking at the total energy demand, and the production by wind energy, what can you deduce is the purpose of gas turbines?
Can you see any correlation between wind output and gas turbine output?
Opportunity for Group Work
Make a poster or presentation showing what you have learned.
In this activity, students will test the hypothesis that “When the clouds are darker, more of the Sun’s light has been scattered and so less light reaches the ground”
Advice for teachers
Ideally, this activity should be carried out over a week or longer. This could mean that different classes contribute towards collecting the data.
You will need
Advice
Extension
Draw a graph which shows light level against grey scale number
Questions
We can’t see or feel atmospheric pressure but rely on barometers to tell us how the pressure is changing.
Pressure changes with altitude. Changing weather patterns can also lead to changing atmospheric pressure.
For these exercises, you will need to download the phyphox app onto your phone or, if you are working in small groups, onto one person’s phone.
You will also need a tape measure (5m) and access to an open stairwell – the higher, the better!
Using the following information, calculate the theoretical atmospheric pressure at the surface of the Earth:
Total mass of the atmosphere: 5 x 1018kg
Radius of the Earth: 6370km (OR surface area of Earth = 5.1 x 10 14 m2)
Gravitational field strength, g = 10 ms-2
Pressure = force/ area
Pressure = mass x g/ (4 pi r2)
Pressure = (5 x 1018 x 10)/ (5.1 x 10 14)
Pressure = 98057 Pa
Alternative units: 1hPa = 100 Pa
1 millibar (mbar) = 1 hPa
Now open the app and select pressure:
Now use the forward arrow to start measuring the pressure:
Record the current air pressure in your classroom in Pa __________________________________
What proportion of the theoretical atmospheric pressure you calculated above it this (express your answer as a percentage)?___________________________
Move to an open stairwell and complete the following table, using a tape measure to record the vertical distance you have ascended between each measurement you make. Make sure that you make your first measurement at floor level.
Now draw a graph of change in atmospheric pressure (dependent variable) against height (independent variable).
Complete the following sentence “A pressure change of 1hPa indicates an altitude change of ____m”.
Extension Questions
Many smart phones, watches etc. are equipped with pressure sensors so that they can be used to calculate altitude.
1) If you used a phone (in flight safe mode) to measure the pressure inside an aeroplane in flight, why won’t it give you an accurate indication of the height you are flying at?
2) You are on a many-day expedition to the Himalayan mountains and you are using the pressure sensor in your watch to tell you how high you are. Why would it not be safe to rely on this information?
(resources created from ideas on https://phyphox.org/)
Resource produced in conjunction with Sustainability Physics.
This could be used as a starter exercise: Can students do the whole question at once given only the radius of the Earth, the temperature rise and the specific heat capacity of sea water?
Resource produced in conjunction with Sustainability Physics.
The world’s oceans are heating. Their temperature is not rising as fast as that of the land or air, but they are the major store of the excess thermal energy resulting from greenhouse gas emissions
The top 700m of the oceans have warmed by 0.18°C on average between 1955 and 2010.
This resource investigates how big this store of thermal energy is.
© 2021 Royal Meteorological Society
RMetS is a registered charity No. 208222
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