3M
Convection
1. Why does warmer air rise?
2. Explain how convection currents form in a saucepan of water being heated.
3. Why does convection not happen in solids?
4. The sea can absorb a lot of energy from the sun during
the day. It can absorb more energy than
land because:
it is transparent so the sun’s rays can pass deeper under
the surface,
waves and tides mean the water is constantly churning
round so a larger volume of water can be
heated by the sun.
a) Which surface gets hotter during the day – the ground or the sea?
b) Which surface is going to give out most heat during the day – the ground or the sea?
(Hint - The hotter something is the more heat it gives out)
c) During the day is the air warmer above the land or the sea?
d) Given that warmer air rises and cooler air comes to take its place, draw a convection current on the
picture to show how air moves around a coastline during the day.
e) Does the wind blow towards the land or towards the sea during the day?
5. Because the sea has absorbed more energy from the sun than land during the day, it can give out this
heat for longer at night.
a) Which surface is going to give out most heat during the night – the ground or the sea?
b) During the night, is the air warmer above the land or the sea?
c) Given that warmer air rises and cooler air comes to take its place, draw a convection current on the
picture above to show how air moves around a coastline during the night.
d) Does the wind blow in an onshore (towards the land) or offshore (towards the sea) direction
during the night?
e) If you ran a cafe on a beach, how would you protect your customers from the wind?
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Students aged 11 - 16 years