Convection and Wind

Let's talk about Convection and Wind - with a simple visit to the beach!

"Ma, Why is it so windy at the beach?"

Let's s take some time today to sit down, relax, and talk about some of the science behind that sea breeze.

Convection drives this windy weather on Earth.

In the Summer, the ocean is cooler than the land. As air moves over the water, it cools off. As air cools, the molecules slow down and air becomes more dense. Because of gravity, the cold and dense air sinks. But diffusion makes that densely packed cool air move to areas with more room to spread out. The cool air drifts over the land again and as it does, it heats up. As the air heats the molecules spread out and the hot air moves upward again. Hot air rises and cold air sinks. This process is called convection. 

Only our 10 year old did this part of today's lesson on convection and wind.

We spoke about how air expands as it gets hot. Then I showed her the math around it. 

Charles' Law!

Volume 1 over temperature 1 is the same as volume 2 over temperature 2.

Here's the word problem that we wrote out:

When the volume at 300 K is 20 liters, what is the volume at 400 K? 

The same air takes up more space if hot!

What happens in space?

Convection exists here in Earth because of gravity. In Low Earth Orbit on the International Space Station, there is no convection. Air on the ISS moves around only because of fans. It can be dangerous for astronauts if the fans stop working because pockets of dangerous carbon dioxide can build up around the crew, depriving them of oxygen and making it harder for them to think.

Activity:

We made some cards together and spoke about hot air rising and cool air sinking. We matched big words to little words. We drew a diagram of the beach and the air moving across that beach. We wrote a little story on a card and read it together. Here's our story:

Wind

Air moves.

This is wind.

Hot air rises.

Cold air sinks.

Move!

We pretended we were air currents moving up and down as we heated and cooled.

Have you visited a beach?

Do you enjoy the feeling of the ocean breeze on your skin? 

 

Beach Lessons

Here are some other lessons that we made that revolve around the beach.

Beach Lessons

http://steamma.blogspot.com/2019/12/beach.html?m=1

Math with Shells 

http://steamma.blogspot.com/2022/08/math-with-shells.html?m=1

#science 

#math

#weather

#oceans