GEOG 2050 Chapter : Geography Chapter 3
Document Summary
Air- simple mixture of gases that is naturally odorless, colorless, tasteless, and formless, blended so thoroughly that it behaves as a single gas. Top of our atmosphere is 480 km (300mi) above earth"s surface beyond this is the exosphere (outer sphere) less dense atmosphere is nearly a vacuum. Weakly bounded by gravity as far as 32,000 km from earth. Air pressure- earth"s atmosphere (atm) exerts its weight, pressuring downward due to gravity. Air molecules- create air pressure through motion, size, and number, pressure is exerted on all surfaces in contact with air. The weight of the (atm), or air pressure, pushes in on all of us. It doesn"t crush us because of the air pressure inside of our bodies. Density= mass/ volume, decreses with height due to the effect of gravity. Over half the total mass of the atm is below 5300 meters (18000)
