3/14/14

Your homework for the weekend is as follows:

- Assignment 45 (see the previous post for a class data to interpret if you were unable to finish the investigation in class) - to assist your completion, read Chap. 20.1, 20.2, and 20.3.
- Assignment 46 (see the questions below if necessary) - to assist your completion, read Chap. 20.5, 20.6, 20.7, 20.8, 20.9, and 20.13. You do not need to take notes on the reading since you are using the reading to complete Assignment 46.

Assignment 45 - “Investigating the Effects of a Greenhouse Gas” Analysis Questions

Answer all of the following questions to the best of your ability in complete sentences.

1. Thoroughly analyze your data. This means that you should:
• Graph your data
• Make inferences and evaluate your hypothesis
• Support your conclusions by referring to your data
• Try to explain what happened

2. Monthly mean atmospheric carbon dioxide at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii is graphed below.
The carbon dioxide data (red, lighter curve), measured as the mole fraction in dry air*
Loa constitute the longest record of direct measurements of CO2 in the atmosphere. These records
were started by C. David Keeling of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 1958 at a facility of the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA started its own CO2 measurements
in May of 1974, and they have run in parallel with those made by Scripps since then. The black
(darker) curve represents the seasonally corrected data.

*Data are reported as a dry mole fraction defined as the number of molecules of carbon dioxide
divided by the number of molecules of dry air multiplied by one million (ppm).

Based on the information presented and collected today, what inferences, predictions, etc. can you
make? In other words, what are the implications of your observations and conclusions?

Assignment 46 - Investigating Climate Change

1. What factors can affect Earth’s climate?

2. How do we know that the Earth’s climate has changed? How do we measure Earth’s present/past climate?

3. What are the implications of what you have seen and heard today?