What is the El Niño condition?

What will be an ideal response?


Answer: Weather patterns in the Pacific are controlled by warm, high-pressure systems that cause the trade winds to blow westward along the equator, dragging the warm equatorial surface waters along with them. As warm surface waters move westward, deeper, colder waters rise upward to replace vacant area left by the warm water. This upwelling cold water brings a variety of sea life—important to the fishing industry along the west coast of South America. When the trade winds fail to strengthen, the warm surface water remains off the coast of South America. This is the El Niño condition. During an El Niño, warm surface waters stretch eastward and the subtropical jet stream sends tropical moisture to the coast of South America. At higher latitudes, it sends rain to California and snow to the Rockies. El Niño tends to make winter temperatures warmer than normal in the North Central States, and cooler than normal in the Southeast and Southwest.

Physics & Space Science

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A 0.42-kg quantity of ethanol, in the liquid state at its melting point of -114.4°C, is frozen at atmospheric pressure. The heat of fusion of ethanol is 1.04 × 105 J/kg, and its molecular mass is 46.1 g/mol

What is the change in the entropy of the ethanol as it freezes? A) 280 J/K B) -280 J/K C) -310 J/K D) 250 J/K E) -250 J/K

Physics & Space Science

When a sound wave moves through a medium such as air, the motion of the molecules of the medium is in what direction (with respect to the motion of the sound wave)?

a. perpendicular c. anti-parallel (in opposite direction) b. parallel d. Both choices B and C are valid.

Physics & Space Science

Which of the following statements is true of an electron?

A) Binding energy is large when a large amount of energy is needed to pull an electron away from an atom. B) The energy that holds an electron to an atom is referred to as its radiation energy. C) The presence of electrons allows an atom to have unlimited amounts of binding energy. D) It is a low-mass atomic particle that carries a positive charge when combined with a proton.

Physics & Space Science

If the accuracy in measuring the velocity of a particle increases, the accuracy in measuring its position will

A) increase. B) decrease. C) remain the same. D) It is impossible to say since the two measurements are independent and do not affect each other.

Physics & Space Science