Question

On a particular day, the vertical pressure gradient at the surface is -11 pascals per meter. What is the vertical pressure gradient in units of millibars per kilometer? Can this gradient be used to exactly determine the pressure at the top of a building 200 m tall?

Answer 1

The vertical pressure gradient is -110 millibars per kilometer. While this provides a rate of change of pressure, it cannot determine the exact pressure at the top of a 200m building without the initial pressure at the bottom.

Step-by-step explanation:

The vertical pressure gradient of -11 pascals per meter can be converted to millibars per kilometer by following the conversion steps necessary for these units of pressure and distance. First, since there are 1000 meters in a kilometer and 100 pascals in a millibar, we convert -11 pascals per meter to millibars per kilometer by multiplying by these factors. This gives us -11 × 1000 / 100 = -110 millibars per kilometer.

It is important to note that although the gradient gives us a rate of change of pressure with respect to height, it does not provide us with enough information to determine the exact pressure at the top of a 200 m tall building. We would also need to know the initial pressure at the bottom of the building to calculate the exact pressure at the top using this gradient.