Central questions for our study of :
Meteorology
How does the atmosphere impact our everyday lives?
What are the factors which impact the Earth's weather?
How can we predict weather when given current atmospheric conditions around the country?
The map shown above uses changes in wave frequency to detect the presence & motion of water molecules in the air.
Common Meteorology Misconceptions
(However--any Newtown High School student can give you the scientifically accepted explanation)
MISCONCEPTION |
SCIENTIFICALLY ACCEPTED EXPLANATION |
| The seasons are caused by the earth's distance to the sun. | The seasons are actually caused by the earth's 23 and 1/2 degree tilt on it's axis. This tilt causes the Northern Hemisphere of the earth to receive more direct sunlight during the months of June and July, thus giving us warmer weather during this time. The cold weather of winter occurs because we receive less direct sunlight during the months of December and January. |
| Tornadoes and hurricanes have caused the most weather related fatalities. | Over the past 6 decades in the USA, lightning has caused more fatalities than any other weather event. In recent years, flooding has been the biggest weather related killer. |
| The Coriolis Effect (which causes the global winds to deflect to the right in the northern hemisphere and the left in the southeren hemisphere) causes toilets in Australia to swirl in the opposite direction of toilets in the United States. | The Coriolis Effect occurs because different latitudes on earth (for example, the equator and the poles) rotate at different speeds. This difference in rotational speed causes objects moving over large distances to experience a deflection to the right or left, depending upon their hemisphere. Water that moves only the width of a toilet will not experience a significant difference in the earth's rotational speed, thus Coriolis Effect isn't the cause of the water's direction of movement. (it's actually just the design of the toilet) |