Question

Given Standard Atmospheric Conditions, What Would the Temperature Be at 10,000 Feet?

a) Constant, regardless of altitude
b) Warmer than at sea level
c) Colder than at sea level
d) Impossible to determine

Answer 1

The temperature at
`10,000 feet` under Standard Atmospheric Conditions would be colder than at sea level due to the lapse rate, where temperature decreases with altitude.

Step-by-step explanation:

Given Standard Atmospheric Conditions, what would the temperature be at
`10,000 feet`? The correct answer is (c) Colder than at sea level. With increasing altitude, the atmospheric pressure decreases, which typically leads to lower temperatures.

At an altitude of
`3000 m` (approximately
`10,000 feet` ), atmospheric pressure has been recorded as
`7.00×104 N/m²` , which is quite lower than the sea-level pressure of about
`1.01×105 N/m²` . As the atmospheric pressure drops with elevation, the temperature also diminishes.

This phenomenon is mainly due to the Earth's atmospheric lapse rate, a decrease in temperature with an increase in altitude typically around
`6.5°C per 1000 meters` (or about
`3.5°F per 1000 feet` ) in the lower atmosphere.