Image courtesy of Chris Bretherton

From: Dr. Robert Wood
Arica, Chile, November 10, 2008

Atmospheric Pressure

Have you ever been on an airplane and noticed how the packets of chips seem to have expanded more than on the ground? This is an effect of atmospheric pressure. An aircraft is pressurized to a level that is equivalent to about 8000 feet (2500 meters) altitude. Because the air is thinner at this level, it exerts less pressure on the chip packet and so the pressure inside the packet can cause it to expand.

A similar effect can be seen if you drink some water on an airplane and then return to ground level only to find that the bottle is somewhat crushed. In the photograph, Chris Terai (a graduate student at the University of Washington) is showing a bottle that he took to the high altitude Altiplano, which is 15000 feet (4500 meters) above sea level. He closed the bottle there and then returned to Arica, which is at sea level, where the excess pressure outside the bottle crushed it!!

Postcards from the Field: Climate Science from the Southeast Pacific

You might also be interested in:

Traveling Nitrogen Classroom Activity Kit

Check out our online store - minerals, fossils, books, activities, jewelry, and household items!...more

Sea Level

Measuring sea level, the level of the ocean surface, continually over many years allows scientists to calculate whether sea level is changing. This helps us to understand how much sea level rise is happening...more

Rhea George

Many students in atmospheric science were motivated to enter the field by some fascinating extreme weather event experienced as a child. This was not the case with me. When I was an undergraduate I was...more

Dr. Boris Dewitte

I'm a physical oceanographer interested in climate variability and especially the El Niño phenomenon. Other than the annual cyle of the seasons, El Niño is the largest pulsation of the climate. I'm interested...more

Dr. Paquita Zuidema

Hola! I am originally from the Netherlands and thereafter spent 3 years as a child in the Peruvian Andes, but I have lived most of my life in the United States. I received my bachelor's degree in physics...more

Lelia Hawkins

I am starting my fourth year of graduate school at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, studying atmospheric chemistry and climate science. I love earth science and have always wanted to do something...more

Dr. Jeff Snider

I am a university professor involved in studies of the concentration and type of particles contained within clouds. It is important to know these things in order to say how often clouds produce precipitation...more

Dr. Chris Zappa

I am a specialist in ocean-atmosphere interactions. My interests include wave dynamics and wave breaking, the effect of near-surface turbulence on heat, gas, and momentum transport, airborne infrared...more

Windows to the Universe, a project of the National Earth Science Teachers Association, is sponsored in part is sponsored in part through grants from federal agencies (NASA and NOAA), and partnerships with affiliated organizations, including the American Geophysical Union, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Earth System Information Partnership, the American Meteorological Society, the National Center for Science Education, and TERC. The American Geophysical Union and the American Geosciences Institute are Windows to the Universe Founding Partners. NESTA welcomes new Institutional Affiliates in support of our ongoing programs, as well as collaborations on new projects. Contact NESTA for more information. NASA ESIP NCSE HHMI AGU AGI AMS NOAA