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Read Chapter Four Temperature and Insolation Read South America Map Study Read Exam One - Study Guide

Discussion Chapter Four Discussion South America Extra Credit Study Guide Discussion

Chapter Four Quiz South America Quiz Exam One

This week your assignment is to read chapter four, complete the South America map study, and take exam one.

You have two discussion assignments, one for chapter four and one for South America. Please have fun with South America, post a picture or video of somewhere you would like to visit.

Supplemental material for chapter four is located here: http://schmidtphysicalgeography.wikispaces.com/Ch+4

South America is here: http://schmidtphysicalgeography.wikispaces.com/South+America Maps have been left with the secretary in the Physical Science office if you need one.

As for chapter four, my first online students thought that this chapter was hard. So I wrote some helpful hints for this chapter - and that seemed to help the next class, hopefully it will help you too.

In the beginning, the text talks about energy. It is important to understand that energy is different to science than to the way we think of it socially. It is all about how fast atoms and molecules are moving around. The text mentions several kinds – don’t get bogged down in all of that, kinetic energy is the one most important to physical geography. The temperature scales – we use Fahrenheit but the rest of the world uses Celsius. It is good to know how to convert between the two because if you travel to Canada or Mexico, they both use Celsius and if you don’t know how to make the conversion, you will be dressed funny : ) Kelvin not used in physical geography – skim that part.

The sun is the only source of energy for our planet, even coal and oil are ancient forms of fixed solar energy. Think about where coal and oil come from… The text talks about our sun, you don’t have to worry about that, far more important stuff in this chapter. The electromagnetic spectrum – the only parts important to physical geography are ultra violet, visible light, and infrared. Learn about those three, the others are interesting, but not on the quiz. Know the difference between short and long wave radiation and where each come from. Know radiation as it pertains to this chapter – not the same as like from a nuclear disaster. Understand absorption and reflection and how color plays a role in both – please know that while this is simple, it has HUGE implications! Think of ice caps, think what happens when they melt, what is under? Dark colored water. How does that affect temperature on earth? Do you see the problem with the loss of ice now?

Understand transmission and scattering – has to do with why skies are blue and sunsets are red. Also has to do with why cloudy days are not our coldest or warmest and why clear days are hotter and clear nights are colder. Greenhouse Effect – it’s actually a good thing, understand this and how it works. Conduction is good, but not so important as advection and convection – learn these (come back again in chapter 6). Adiabatic warming and cooling – text gets very scientific – it’s simple, adiabatic cooling is how air cools as it rises, and adiabatic warming is how air warms as it sinks (like days when we have the Santa Ana winds). This also comes back in chapter 6. Atmospheric moisture contains a lot of energy – evaporation and condensation as actually cooling and warming processes – mentioned here briefly, also comes back again in chapter 6. Albedo – this is an important term to understand, it’s simple but also has far reaching implications. Please see the graphic in the Prezi, and the article about loss of arctic sea ice in the same frame. As for the variations in heating by latitude and season, this I don’t think is too bad, because here you are bringing together what you have learned about seasons and day length and atmospheric obstruction (clouds or pollution) from chapters one and three.

The next thing is about the difference between the heating of land and water – this is very important for physical geography. Land heats and cools to a greater extent than water. It takes a lot of energy to change the temperature of water – we refer to the amount of energy it takes to change the temperature of something from one degree to another as specific heat. Water has a very high specific heat, it takes a lot of energy to change the temperature of water – but you know this! You have probably all put a mug of water in the microwave before and you know that the mug gets warm first – because it takes more energy to change the temperature of the water. This has implications for weather and climate, like if we compare the temperature of Los Angeles or San Diego and San Bernardino – you know we get much hotter in the summer and much colder in the winter, and this is because of the difference between how land heats and cools and how water heats and cools. The textbook has a nice section about all of the implications of this – like which hemisphere has the most land and who has the most temperature extremes. Do read that section! Last part of the chapter talks about Climate Change. It picks up where we left off in chapter three talking about greenhouse gasses and what happens when we put them in the atmosphere. I do want for you to understand this. Unfortunately I do not believe that the book is strongly worded enough about these problems, and we learn more all the time so the book is outdated here. I do want you to know the major culprit for climate change and how it is getting out into the atmosphere.

I hope this helps you with chapter four. There are also several videos for chapter four which I hope you find helpful. Of course if you have any problems or questions, please feel free to ask, e-mail me at ProfessorLisaS@gmail.com or text me at 760 440 8977.

=** This week it is also time for your first exam. The exam covers chapters one thru four. A study guide is available. You will find the exam and the study guide in the EXAMS folder. **= = = =** When I am teaching this class on site, I like to play a game with the study guide for extra credit, or at least give my students the opportunity for extra credit for looking up all of the items on the study guide. I want to give my online students the same opportunity for extra credit, so a study guide discussion has been created for extra credit. **= = = =** To receive 5 extra credit points, pick a term from the study guide and post it's definition, or location if it is a place - like the Arctic Circle - and give its significance, like for the Arctic Circle, that it receives no sunlight in the winter and 24 hours of sunlight in the summer (that one is used since I gave it to you.) **= = = =** Feel free to use pictures or videos - you can think of the post you create as helping your classmates understand the terms, so as you write, be thinking, how do I explain this to someone else? Pictures from the textbook or from the Prezis are OK to use, in fact I encourage it. You can screen shot from your phones or PRINT SCREEN from your computers. To receive credit, your post must be original, so check the discussion board to see which terms have been posted and pick one that has not already been posted. **=



=** I wanted to point out that Thursday is the equinox, I do this because I love fall!! But also because it was in your first chapter, and will likely be on the test. At 7:21 AM Thursday is becomes fall. There are 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness and the next day, the night is longer than the day (finally!) I put a few pictures of Manhattanhenge - in New York City, the buildings act almost like the stones at Stonehenge. I hope you all get a chance to take a look at the sunset on Thursday because the sun will set directly west of us, so it will set right on the east/west streets, like Highland, Baseline, Foothill/5th St., Arrow HWY/San Bernardino Ave. etc. It makes for great pictures : ) Happy Equinox to you all! Here is a link to the timing on the Equinox in case you are curious: [] **=