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Temperature Versus Altitude/Latitude

by

Thomas Draganski, Marcia Halpern, Thuc Ho, and Jennifer DeLuna
 

Introduction | Task | Resources | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion

Introduction 

In this lesson, you’ll be asked to search for data on the Internet.  Then you’ll make inferences based on the data found.  This activity will give you an opportunity to explore, draw connections, and learn more about the temperature relative to other cities around you.

The Task

Your task is to look at the average yearly temperature in different cities and see if you can draw a relationship between the two sets of data:  temperature and latitude and temperature and altitude.  You will be able to answer the following questions:

• What are the meanings of the terms:  hemisphere, latitude, degree, minute, altitude, elevation, and temperature?
• How does a change of one degree in latitude affect the temperature?  If your data does not show a relationship between the two, can you hypothesize why not?
• How does a change of 1,000 feet in elevation affect the temperature?  If your data does not show a relationship between the two, can you hypothesize why not?
• Synthesis:  Can you predict the average yearly temperature for a city on a given latitude?  At a given elevation?  If so, what?  If not, why not?
• Now that you know how it’s like in other cities, do you appreciate San Diego’s weather? If  not, why not?

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Resources

•  The Weatherbase website which provides information about temperature for different parts of the world.
•  Askdrmath is an excellent online resource where you could ask questions regarding math or this project in particularly.
•  The dictionary website.
•  An atlas, globe, or map of the world.
•  Spreadsheet program (Excel is recommended).

The Process

Here is a step-by-step process of how you accomplish this activity:
 

1.   With your partner, look up the terms listed above.  Be sure you get the geographical definition of “degree” and “minute” as well as the thermal definition of “degree”.  You can use a regular dictionary, or visit the dictionary website.

2.   Decide which partner will research latitude and which will research elevation.

 Latitude person:  Go to your map or atlas and pick ten cities in the northern hemisphere spread out over different continents and different latitudes.  Visit the Weatherbase website.  Gather average yearly temperature and latitude data from the cities you selected.
 Elevation person:  Go to the Weatherbase  website and find Peru.  Get the elevation and average yearly temperatures from ten different cities, but five must have an elevation greater than 5000 feet.

3.   Use the spreadsheet program to enter found data on a spreadsheet.  Make three columns: one for the name of the city, one for the latitude or elevation (each partner does his own sheet) and one for the temperature.  Enter all of the data in those columns.  (Note: the latitude person MUST convert the minutes to decimals).  Each person will then create a chart, putting temperature on the y-axis.  Use Excel to generate a trendline.

4.   In an essay (written by both partners), explain how latitude and elevation affect temperature.  Include your analysis of the slope and y-intercept of the equation generated by Excel.  How could you use this information to predict the average temperatures of cities if you were given their altitudes and latitudes?

Evaluation

Each partner will be graded separately on his or her spreadsheet (a total of 30 points possible).  The essay will be worth 70 points based on its analysis, and each partner will receive the same grade.

Conclusion

Although climate is determined by many complicated factors that scientists are still trying to understand, it is possible to examine some of those factors.  You should now be able to use spreadsheets to examine and make conclusions about any data you collect.