How Do High Monthly Temperatures

Change from 1975-2022?

Our sinusoidal graphs show the change in the average high temperature each month in
Richmond Virginia over a period of 47 years, 1975 to 2022.
 Explanations:

A Value: My A value was found by doing the

1975
change in temperature and then dividing that
value in half to find the amplitude. (89-
51)=38/2=~19

B Value: 2 pi divided by 12 because there are

twelve months in a year, or one period of the
graph is twelve. Resulted in a B of pi divided by
6.

C Value: The horizontal shift. Because the

highest point of the graph was not in the
center, at the sixth point we had to move the
graph to the right 0.5 for the cosine graph and
1.07 for the sin graph.

D Value: The midpoint of the graph. Take the

amplitude and add it to the lowest point on the
graph, which resulted in the number 70.75.
 2022
Explanations
A Value: I divided the total change in temperature by
half to give me the amplitude.

B Value: Because there are 12 months in a year, I

input 12 into the equation 2π/B to get π/6.

C Value: Since my graphs were not aligned with my

data points, I used trial and error to shift my graph
until the highest points of my graphs aligned with the
highest data point.

D Value: To find the midpoint, I added the amplitude

(22.1) to the lowest point on the graph (46.5) to get
68.6.
 Combined Graphs
The top two equations are from 1975 and result in a black line. The bottom two are from 2022 and result in a blue line.
How Do High Monthly Temperatures Change
from 1975-2022?
Hypothesis: Climate change will have an impact on the high
temperatures, which will make the amplitude larger on the 2022
graph. This will result in a vertically stretched graph.
Analysis: We found that there were only minor changes in the
graphs, which we did not expect. The B and C values stayed very
similar. The A value decreased by 3.05, from -19.05 to -22.1. The
D values also decreased from 70.75 to 68.8; a total decrease of
1.95. The graphs were similar except for the min points, which
dropped slightly from 51.7 to 46.7. This means that the winters in
Richmond have become harsher and colder temperatures have
been reached. The summer temperatures have remained similar
only changing by .09. This might be a direct result from climate
change and global warming.
Sources
• https://www.extremeweatherwatch.com/cities/richmond/year-1975
• The data that we used for the graphs was from this site. We averaged out the daily temperature
averages into monthly.