CHAPTER VII.
The study of atmospheric pressure is not easy, because the pupils cannot perceive the changes in pressure from day to day by their
unaided senses. Especially difficult does this study become if the class has not already had some practice in making barometer readings. When this observational work has not preceded the consideration of the isobaric lines of the daily weather maps, the teacher should introduce the subject of pressure very carefully. The experiment with the Torricellian tube will show the class something of the reality of atmospheric pressure, and the variations in this pressure from day to day can readily be made apparent by means of a few barometer readings, if time cannot be spared for a regular and continued series of barometer observations. A word may be said as to the correction of barometric readings for local influences, in order to make these readings comparable, if this matter has not been previously met with, but care should be taken not to confuse the younger pupils too much with explanations at this stage of the work. It may be well to omit this point unless it is brought up by some pupil. The questions asked in the text are merely suggestive. They may be added to and varied at the discretion of the teacher.
Lines of pressure-decrease should be drawn on all isobaric charts studied in the class, as they are highly instructive. When the isobars are near together, these lines of pressure-decrease may be drawn heavier, to indicate a steeper gradient. The convergence of these lines towards regions of low pressure, and their divergence from regions of high pressure, seen on every map on which these gradients are drawn, emphasizes an important lesson. Before measuring rates of pressure-decrease by means of a scale, considerable practice should be given in the study, by means of the eye, of the rapidity or slowness of decrease of pressure, as shown by the heavier or lighter lines of pressure-decrease. When the broad facts of differing rates are comprehended, then the actual measurement of these rates is a comparatively easy matter. In any case, however, an appreciation of these rates of change is not always readily gained, even by older scholars in the high school. It is, therefore, of prime importance to proceed very slowly indeed at this point, and to have every step fully understood before another step is taken.
The instructions in the text for measuring rates of pressure-decrease are, that these rates shall be recorded as so many hundredths of an
inch of change of pressure in one latitude-degree. This is done for the sake of simplicity. If this rate is expressed in hundredths of an inch of pressure in a quarter of a latitude-degree of distance, the numerical value is the same as if expressed in millimeters of pressure per latitude-degree of distance.