Altitude Temperature and Pressure
Temperature change with altitude (6 °C per km) and air pressure change (1 mmHg per 10.5 m): geography problems with solutions.
What to find:
The height is counted from the point where the temperature or pressure is known (the foot). Going down, for example into a mine, is a negative height.
The altitude calculator solves school problems: the temperature or pressure at the top of a mountain, the height of a plane, the depth of a mine.
Rules
| Quantity | Change going up |
|---|---|
| air temperature | −6 °C per 1 km (0.6 °C per 100 m) |
| air pressure | −1 mmHg per 10.5 m |
Going down (for example, into a mine) temperature and pressure increase by the same rules. The pressure rule holds in the lowest 2–3 km of the atmosphere; higher up the pressure falls more slowly. Normal sea-level pressure is 760 mmHg (1013 hPa).
Example 1. At the foot +20 °C. At 3000 m: 20 − 3 · 6 = 2 °C.
Example 2. 760 mmHg at the foot, 720 mmHg at the top of a hill. Height: (760 − 720) · 10.5 = 420 m.
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