Unit Introduction

Unit 3 | Weather

257

image
Water changes phase and is transported around the planet. It may then show up as snow or rain.
Wes Walker/Lonely Planet Images/Getty Images

In this unit, you will learn

  • about proportional relationships

  • about temperature scales and how thermometers work

  • the effects of changing temperature, pressure, and volume on matter

  • about the behavior of gases

  • how to read weather maps and make weather predictions

image
Stockbyte/Getty Images

Why Weather?

Thunderstorms dump great quantities of rain, fog seeps into a bay at nightfall, warm temperatures entice us to the beach, and hurricanes devastate coastal communities. For better or worse, the weather is a part of our everyday lives. Physical change is at the core of weather. Weather occurs when matter undergoes changes in location, density, phase, temperature, volume, and pressure. When you understand the relationships between these changes in matter, you will begin to answer the question, “What is the chemistry of weather?”