3 replies to this topic

[thamar]

Hello i was asked a question by a professor of mine but i just can't find the answer. Can you calculate the height of a mountain if you only have a thermometer? I thought about using the difference between the mountain temperature and the ground temperature(which is the room temperature) and since the height increases so does the temperature and so does the pressure. But i just can't find a formula that contains all that information. Can anyone help?

[breizh]

Hi,

Calculate temperature change with elevation – TreeLineBackpacker

 

Try the link above or use your favorite search engine.

Good luck

Breizh 

[Pilesar]

There are many ways to find the height of a mountain with a thermometer. One would be to drop the thermometer off the mountain and calculate the height from the time it takes for the thermometer to fall to the bottom. You might measure the difference between when you see the thermometer hit the bottom and when you hear the sound to calculate a distance. You might set the thermometer vertical in the sun and measure its shadow in proportion to its height. The length of the mountain's shadow will be in the same proportion to the mountain's height. Perhaps you could weigh the thermometer at the mountain's base and at the top to use the difference in the force of gravity to calculate the height. Maybe you could trade the thermometer to someone who had an atlas who would allow you to look up the height. I think the goal of the question is to get you to use your imagination.

[StealthProg]

Temperature drops with height.  Usually by about 1C for every 200m.  It's mostly to do with radiative heat transfer and gas expansion though and proper calculation of it is not trivial.  If you can manage that you might go the next step and reproduce arhhenius manual calculation of global warming first done in the 1800's.

Edited by StealthProg, 03 September 2021 - 03:43 AM.