School: Atoyay National High School

Subject: Science - 9
WEATHER VS. CLIMATE

Weather - It is the condition of the atmosphere at a specific place and time. What you
see outside is the weather condition. In addition, weather may change from time to time
or day by day.

Factors Affecting the Weather

1. Temperature - it is the degrees of hotness and coldness of a place. We can

measure the temperature of a place using thermometer.
2. Wind - it is the movement of air in the atmosphere. We measure it with wind vane
that tells the direction of the wind and the Anemometer that measures the wind
speed.
3. Air pressure - it is the force caused by the weight of air in the Earth's surface. To
put it simply it is the force exerted by the air. We can measure it with Barometer
and milibars.
4. Humidity - it is the amount of water vapour in the air. If there's a lot of water
vapour in the air, the humidity will be high, the higher the humidity is the wetter
it fells outside. It can be measure by hygrometer.
5. Precipitation - it is the water falling from the atmosphere, in the forms of rain,
snow or hail. It can be measured using Rain Gauge.

Climate - it is the general pattern of weather in a certain area over a long period of time.

Factors Affecting the Climate

1. Latitude – it is the distance (in degrees) to the North and South from equator.
- It is an imaginary line that is parallel to the equator.
 Our planet earth is divided into three (3) major climate zone namely;
tropical, temperate and polar zones.
1. Tropical Zone – are the low latitude. Low lattiude located near the equator.
2. Temperate Zone – are the middle latitude.
3. Polar Zone – are the high latitude.
 Philippines is near the equator that is why we are a tropical country. Places
that are near the equator have high temperature. Places that are far from
the equator have low temperature or we can see as the latitude increases,
temperature decreases.
2. Altitude – it is the height above sea level. The air temperature decreases as the
altitude increases.
Why is it that during summer many people visit Baguio City?
Obviously, the reason is the cold climate there.
Places with high elevations have cold climate just like Baguio City. The higher the
place is the colder the temperature or temperature decreases as the altitude
increases.
3. Bodies of water – the climate of the place is influenced by the sorrounding bodies
of water.
Land heats and cools faster than the sea. Coaster areas have lower temperatures
than in land areas. Places that are far from the bodies of water have extreme
climate.
 4. Topography – it is another factor that affects the climate. One of the topographic
fatures of an area is mountain.
5. Ocean Currents – have also an important role in changing the climate of a certain
area. Warm currents from the equator towards falls carry warm water. On the
other hand. Cold currents travel from the falls towards the equator carry cold
water. While ocean currents carries cold water, the air above it becomes colder.
When this ocean currents moves coastal region the temperature of that area
becomes lower. On the other hand Ocean currents that carries warm water makes
the air warmer. When this currents goes towards a land mass the temperature of
that place becomes higher.
To sum it up, Ocean currents that bring the along cold water to inland make
the climate cold. On the other hand, ocean currents that take along warm water to
coastal areas make the climate warm.

CLIMATE CHANGE

Climate Change
 It is a natural phenomena and has been occuring since the earth came into
being.
 It is a change in the average weather of a given area or region.
Global warming – it is an increase in the temperature of Earth’s atmosphere is due to
greenhouse effect.

Greenhouse effect

 Is a natural process that warm's the Earth's surface and makes life possible on the
planet. Some may think negatively on this natural phenomenon, but it is actually
the reason why organisms in the entire world are able to survive.
 The greenhouse gases present in the atmosphere that act as blanket for trapping
heat has certain approximated percentages.
 Carbon dioxide (CO2), with 80%, has the highest percentage
 Methane (CH4) with 10 %,
 Nitro oxide (NO2) with 7%, and
 Flourinated gases (like chlorofluorocarbons or CFC's has 3 %.
 Natural Greenhouse effect - is the normal process of warming the planet.
 Human enhanced Greenhouse effect - refers to the excessive warming of the
planet brought by tremendous amount of greenhouse gases that resulted from
various human activities. The alarming rise in the global temperature as years
pass is commonly called as the global warming.

Causes or enhanced greenhouse effect;

1. Burning of Fossil Fuels – it refers to the burning of oils, natural gases to

generate energy. When fossil fuels are burn, they release large amount of
carbon dioxide at greenhouse gas. Greenhouse gases trap heat in our
atmosphere causing global warming.
2. Intensive Farming to produce crops & Livestock Raising – producing more
food out of the land that is already use for agriculture often requires heavier
 use of nitrogen base fertilizers. Which in turn release nitroxide emission and
contribute to climate change.
3. Deforestation – it is the loss of trees and other vegetation that can cause
climate change. Moreover it may also cause soil erussion, fuels crack,
flooding and increase greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Some human activities may lead to the increase of greenhouse gases; pollution,
over consumption, distraction of the reefs and emission of carbon dioxide and
other greenhouses gases. These are mainly the causes of global warming if we
caanot control and minimize this it may lead to climate change.

Effects of Climate Change

What will be the effects of Climate change? Climate change affects;
1. Human Health – extreme changes in the weather and environment can
increase existence health problems as well as creating new ones.
2. Plants – climate change also alters the life cycle of plants. For example as
temperature gets warmer many plants starting to grow and bloom earlier in
spring and survive longer.
3. Animals – they face new challenges for survival because of climate change.
There were animals that are waking from hibernation sooner or migrating at
different times.
4. Melting of Glaciers – may add to the rising of sea levels which in turn
increases coastal erussion and elevate storm sauge.
5. Alter Precipitation – changes in precipitation patterns will impact people in
ecosystem by alternating the availability of water through out the year.

What can we do to help lessen these effects? Here are some things to consider;
1. Reduce Carbon emissions.
2. Conservation of Energy
3. Preactice 3’Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle)
4. Adopt a Plant- Based Diet
5. Use renewable Energy
6. Preservation of Forest
7. Educate People

There are two global climatic phenomena that occur naturally resulting to periodic
change in Pacific Ocean surface temperature that have impacts on weather all over the
globe. These occurrences are named as El Niño and La Neña phenomena.

1. El Niño - is an abnormal climate pattern brought by the warming of Pacific ocean

near the equatorial region because of weak trade of winds that push back warm
water to east. In simple terms, El Niño is the warm phase.
2. La Niña - as the opposite of El Niño, occurs when the unusual stronger trade
winds pushes more warm water towards Asia bringing cold-nutrient water to the
surface that may also result wetter (more rainfall) weather conditions. In simple
terms, La Niña is the cool phase.
School: Atoyay National High School

Subject: Science - 9

STARS AND CONSTELLATIONS

Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are!. When was the last time you
heard or recited this song or poem? In grade school you studied about stars, and perhaps one of
the things surprised you in school was your teacher statement that OUR SUN IS A STAR! That
means that those little stars that twinkle like diamonds in the sky, are not really small. They are
powerful balls of flimming gases that emit electromagnetic waves in all directions.
Are the stars same in size? Color? Equally bright?

There are approximately 400 billion stars in our galaxy and there are about 170 million of
galaxies. Sun is only about 150 million kilometers away and it takes only 8 minutes and 20
seconds for sunlight to reach our world. Its diameter is about 1.4 kilometers 100 times of the
earth. It is only a medium-sized star. Many other stars are much, much bigger.

A star is a natural luminous body visible in the sky especially at night. It is a huge sphere of
very hot glowing gas.

Stars are the most widely recognized astronomical objects. It represents the most fundamental
building blocks of galaxies. A stars can be defined by five basic characteristics namely;
brightness, color and temperature, size and mass.

Characteristics of Stars

a. Brightness - the brightness of the stars depends upon it size and temperature. A large
star shines brighter than a small star. A hot star shines brighter than a cool star. On
the other hand, brightness of a star also related to the distance from the earth to the
star. A star’s apparent brightness is the brightness you see from the earth. A hot large
star that is very far from Earth does not look very bright. A star’s absolute brightness is
the brightness the star would have if all stars were the same distance from Earth.

b. Color and Temperature – star color ranges from red to blue. The color of the star
indicates its surface temperature.

Star Color Surface Temperature in

Celsius

Sun Yellow 5,700

Proxima Centauri Red 2,300

Epsilon Iridani Orange 4,600

Vega White 9,900

Sirius White 10,000

Alnilam Blue 27,000

As you can see the coolest stars appear red and the hottest star appear in blue color.
 c. Size – many of the stars in the sky are the same size as our sun or a medium-sized star.
White dwarf stars are about the size of the planet earth. Red Giants and super giants stars are
large enough to fell our solar system all the way to Jupiter.

d. Mass – stars have a life cycle that depends on the initial mass of the star.

Low mass stars or small stars survived for billion of years. These small stars die quietly and in
their place as small white dwarf is left behind.

High mass stars or large stars survived for a few million years. These large stars die in a
supernova explosion and in their place a black hole is left behind.

 Scientists believe that all stars came from huge clouds of gas and dust called nebulae.

Arrangement of Stars in a Group

Try to look at the sky at night, can you see images of animals, objects or people? When
stars are group together they are called constellation, an imaginary pattern of stars. The stars
that make up a constellation appear close to each other from earth. In reality they maybe very
distant from one another. Many of these constellations have names that can be traced back to
early Babylonians and Greek Civilizations but nearly all cultures have different names for the
constellations.
The Greeks called the large constellation orion the hunter which means hunter is prominent in
the night sky all over the world during winter.

In Christian Filipinos orions belt, the three stars named; tatlong Maria or Three’s Marias.

This is called Taurus Constellations. During Summer in the Philippines the Constellatons of
Orion and Tauros are not visible at night. They will visible again as the cold season begins.
Changing Position of Constellations
Are you wonder why some constellations not seen in certain months? The revolution is
responsible for the fact that we can see different parts of the sky at different parts of the year.

As the earth revolves around its orbit the stars that were conciled by the bright light of the sun
in the previous months will appear in the sky. There are 88 constellations recognized by the
international Astronomy Union (IAU). Amazing right?

Are you familiar with these images? Do you know your zodiac sign? Zodiac are 12 Constellations.