what happens to atmospheric pressure as we go higher?

As you "go up" to higher altitudes, atmospheric pressure decreases exponentially.This is easiest to grasp if you think about the atmosphere as a big stack of books, starting from the ground and going right up into space. The book at the top (highest altitude) is only going to feel the downward weight of its own mass (not very much)... where as the book way down at the bottom of the stack feels its weight plus the weight of ALL of the other books pressing down upon it!For the atmosphere, instead of books you have an endless amount of air molecules resting on each other and pushing the lower molecules down. The lower you are, the more molecules of air are pushing down on you. The more molecules pushing down on you, the more atmospheric pressure you experience.

  • 0
decreases
  • 1
What are you looking for?