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Lesson No. 1
Weather and Climate

Weather – comes from temporary conditions in the atmosphere

- it is the condition of the atmosphere from day to day and from time
to time

Factors that determine the Weather

1. temperature – is the hotness or coldness of air

2. precipitation – moisture that falls to the ground

Ex: rain , snow

3. humidity – moisture present in the air

4. cloudiness- the state of the sky when it is covered with clouds

5. air pressure – is the weight of the atmosphere pressing down on the earth

5. wind – is moving air

Climate – is the total weather in a region over a long period of time

Climatology – study of climate

Climatologists – scientists who specialize on the study of climate

Factors affecting Climate

1. Latitude – distance from the equator

near the equator – hot or warm
near the pole – cold

2. Altitude – distance above sea level

high places – cold
low places – hot

3. land and water bodies

land heats rapidly and cools down rapidly
water heats slowly and cools down slowly

4. wind systems
Wind – it is formed due to unequal heating of the land and water forms
on the earth’s surface
Cool air – is compact and heavy to it sinks cool air

Warm air – is light so it moves upward

warm air

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Breeze – is the continuous exchange of heated air rising and cold air sinking
Two Kinds of Breeze

1. Sea Breeze – during the day, warm air

over the land rises and is replaced
by the cool air over the water

2. Land Breeze – during the night, land

becomes cooler than water. Warmer
air over the water rises and is re-
placed by the cooler air from the
land

Wind Systems in the Philippines

1. Northeast Monsoon – brings cold mornings and heavy rainfall along the
eastern coastal regions of the Philippines
- amihan
- October to February

2. Southwest Monsoon – brings heavy rainfall along the western coastal areas
of the Philippines
- habagat
- June to September

3. Trade Winds – prevailing winds in the tropics

a) South Pacific Trade – bring humid weather during the month of July
b) North Pacific Trade – bring warm weather during April and May

Two Movements of the Earth

1. Rotation – causes night and day
- 24 hours or 1 day
2. Revolution – earth revolves around the sun
- 365 ¼ days or 1 year

Axis – is the imaginary line drawn from pole to pole which divides the globe
into east and west

The earth’s axis is inclined at 23.5 degrees

Two Seasons in the Philippines

1. dry season – hot, humid days / days are longer
2. wet season – heavy rainfall and frequently visited by typhoons

Four Seasons in the Temperate Countries

1. winter – is a very cold season, snow falls
2. fall or autumn – trees shed off their leaves
3. spring – trees begin to grow their leaves
4. summer – there is abundance of sunlight
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Equinox – means the length of the day equals the length of the night

Solstice – means “ sun stand still “

Northern Hemisphere

1. Spring Equinox – March 21 3. Fall Equinox – September 23

2. Summer Solstice – June 22 4. Winter Solstice – December 22

Four Types of Climate in the Philippines

1. Type 1 – seasons are not very pronounced

- dry from November to April and wet the rest of the year

2. Type 2 – No dry season with a very pronounced maximum rain period from
November to January

3. Type 3 – Seasons are not very pronounced dry from November to April and
wet during the rest of the year

4. Type 4 – rainfall is more or less distributed throughout the year. There is no

dry season and no pronounced maximum rain period

July , August, September – strong typhoons occur

Lesson No. 2

Beyond the Solar System

Galileo Galilei – invented the first simple telescope

Sir Isaac Newton – invented the first reflecting telescope

Instruments Used to Gather Information About Outer Space

1. Telescope – is an instrument used

to see far objects

Kinds of Telescope
1. optical telescope – collect and focus
light by using mirror or lenses or
both
- simplest and most common

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 Two Types of Optical Telescope

a) refracting telescope – has two lens

b) reflecting telescope – has lens and mirror

refracting telescope reflecting telescope

2. Radio telescope – is a special telescope which can see images of
objects with the help of radiation

3. Kech telescope – has a light – gathering mirror which consists of 36

segmented mirrors controlled by a computer

4. Hubble Space Telescope – is used to observe distant stars, galaxies

and other heavenly bodies

Radio telescope Kech telescope Hubble Space Telescope

2. Spectroscope – is an instrument which

breaks light into different
wavelengths like a prism

3. TV Camera – give better picture and

more information about
stars than ordinary
cameras

Star – is a hot luminous heavenly body

Classification of Stars

Size Color Example

Supergiant Red Betelgeuse, Antares
Giant Orange Arcturus
Medium Yellow Sun , Capella
Dwarf White Sirius , Vega
Bluish - white Rigel

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 A star is born when a cloud of gas and dust contracts and starts to glow.

Apparent Brightness – brightness that depends on the distance of the stars

from the observer

Apparent Magnitude – classification according to their brightness as seen on

Earth
- magnitude 1 is brightest
- magnitude 6 is dimmer

Name of Stars color Temperature

Betelgeuse Red 3,000 0 C
Antares Red 3,000 0 C
Arcturus Orange 4,200 0 C
Sun Yellow 6,000 0 C
Capella Yellow 6,000 0 C
Sirius White 11,000 0 C
Vega White 11,000 0 C
Rigel Bluish - white 20,000 0 C

Light Year – is the distance that light travels in one year

- one light year is 9.5 trillion km

Star Light Year

Proxima Centauri 4
Sirius 8½
Procyon 11.3
Arcturus 38
Vega 27
Polaris 680
Deneb 1600

Constellations – group of stars forming some patterns

- 88 constellations

Example of constellations:
Zodiac – is a band of 12 constellations which circles the sky close to the
plane of the earth’s orbit around the sun

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 Big Dipper – has 7 bright stars, four make the bowl and three make the
handle of the dipper

Little Dipper – has the North Star of Polaris at its handle

Cassiopeia – is a queen
- forms letter W

Orion – a great hunter

- Betelgeuse is at its shoulder
- its belt are Tres Marias or the 3 bright stars
- Rigel is at its left knee

Astrology – is the telling of fortunes by the stars

North Star or Polaris – is a star that is always at the north

Importance of Stars
1. It tells directions
2. It tells the weather

Galaxy – is a group of billions of stars, dust and gas that are close to one
another
- it is considered as the building blocks of the universe

Kinds of Galaxy According to Shape

1. Elliptical – has a circular or oval shape
Ex: Whirlpool galaxy

2. Spiral – are like pinwheels

Ex: Milky Way , Andromeda

3. Irregular – it has no definite shape

Ex: Large Magellanic Clouds, Small Magellanic Clouds

Milky Way – is a band of 100 billion stars that appears as a wide, bright arc
across the night sky
- this is where we belong

Great Nebula / Andromeda – is the nearest galaxy to the Milky Way

- it appears like a band of white clouds

Nebula – Latin word which means “cloud “

Magellanic Cloud – seen in the southern hemisphere

- closest galaxy to the Milky Way
- Large Magellanic Cloud and Small Magellanic Cloud

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Universe – is an endless space that contains everything
- it includes all the stars, planets, moons, comets, asteroids , gas
and dust

Theories About the Universe

1. Big Bang Theory – it says that the universe began with a gigantic explosion
- it is believed that the galaxies are still moving apart from the
explosion
2. Steady State Theory – it states that the universe is the same everywhere at
all times
- universe is not expanding
- universe is constant in size and uniform throughout

3. Pulsating Theory – states that the universe expanded from a ball of matter
and still expanding but time would come when it would
stop expanding

Space Probe – is a vehicle which goes to space to collect scientific information

and sends data back to Earth
- it carries cameras and other important instruments on its
mission

Dr. Robert Goddard – fired the first liquid-fuelled rocket into space

Sputnik I – first man-made satellite to orbit the earth

- October 4, 1957 ( Russia )

Yuri Gagarin (Russian ) – first man who made a

complete circuit of the Earth in
one hour and 48 minutes
- April 12, 1961 / Vostok I

Commander Alan B. Shepard Jr. ( American ) – first astronaut blasted into

space in a Mercury capsule
- May 5, 1961

Virgil Grissom – America’s second astronaut on a higher altitude flight

- July 21, 1961

John Glenn – was the first American to orbit the earth aboard Friendship 7 on
Feb. 20, 1962
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Valentina Tereshkova ( Russian ) – first woman in space aboard Vostok 6

Neil Armstrong – first man on the moon

Shepard Grissom Glenn Tereshkova Armstrong

Skylab I – first American space station launched into space on May 14, 1973
- longest flight missions

METSAT ( Meteorological Satelite )

- it can spot typhoons and other natural
disturbances in the atmosphere
- weather predictions and forecasting

COMSAT ( Communication Satelite ) – hi-tech satellites that facilitate

transcontinental and intercontinental communications

Agila II – is the first Philippine orbiting satellite

- text voice and voice transmissions have now become faster
- TV and radio stations can directly transmit their programs to any place
in the Philippines in less time
- make national and international telephone calls faster and more
efficient

Problems in Outer Space

1.Weightlessness – zero gravity

- an astronaut weighs 1/6 only of his actual weight in space
- can cause loss of muscle tone and calcium from bones

2. Food – it cannot be taken in by an astronaut the usual way inside the

spaceship

3. Lack of Oxygen – space is almost a perfect vacuum

4. Temperature and pressure – there is an extreme temperature and pressure

in outer space

5. Harmful Radiation – it is abundant in outer space

6. Waste Disposal

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