Question

With increasing altitude pressure decreases and.

A. temperature decreases at the same rate as pressure reduces.
B. temperature decreases but at a lower rate than pressure reduces.
C. temperature remains constant to 8000 ft.

Answer 1

Pressure and temperature both decrease with increasing altitude, with temperature decreasing at an average lapse rate of 6.5°C per kilometer, although temperature doesn't always decrease at the same rate as pressure.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question deals with the relationship between altitude, air pressure, and temperature. As altitude increases, air pressure decreases because the concentration of air molecules becomes sparser at higher altitudes. Also, the oxygen concentration decreases with altitude, leading to potential hypoxia for climbers. The temperature of the atmosphere generally decreases as altitude increases, known as the lapse rate, approximately 6.5 K (or 6.5°C) per kilometer on average up to the tropopause (about 8 to 14.5 kilometers above sea level). This may seem to suggest that temperature decreases at the same rate as pressure, but this is not accurate across different layers of the atmosphere as temperature can sometimes increase with altitude in the stratosphere. Hence, the correct answer to the question is that temperature decreases with altitude, but not necessarily at the same rate as the decrease in pressure.