Answers   55

Questions
1. Because the hot air is less dense than cold air.
2. The hot air cools and becomes denser, and the weight of the rubber is now enough to pull it down.
3. Hot air rising.
4. Near the ceiling, because of convection/hot air rising.

Hot water (recommended as a teacher demonstration) (page 210)

Questions
1. a. Nothing – the two colours didn’t mix.
b. The hot red water moved up and mixed with the cold water.
2. The hot red water slowly mixed with the cold water.
3. Hot water.
4. Cold water.
5. Cold water.
6. a. At the bottom.
b. Because heated water rises up and mixes with the colder surface water – if the element was at the
top, the hot and cold water wouldn’t mix so quickly and it would take longer to heat the water.
7. Because the colder, denser air from the freezer will sink down and mix with the warmer fridge air – if the
freezer was at the bottom, the colder freezer air wouldn’t mix so quickly with the fridge air, taking longer
to cool the fridge.

Convection currents (page 211)

Questions
1. The red coloured water moved along the surface because it was warmer and therefore less dense than the
rest of the water.
2. The blue coloured water moved along the bottom because it was colder and therefore more dense than
the rest of the water.
3. The transfer of heat through fluids by the actual movement of the heated material.
4. Convection.
5. You can feel the wind and see its effects on trees and the sea.
6. Convection.

Global wind patterns (page 214)

1. The region of Earth receiving the Sun’s rays from directly overhead is the equator. Here, air is heated and
rises, leaving low pressure areas behind. Moving to about thirty degrees north and south of the equator,
the warm air from the equator begins to cool and sink. Between thirty degrees latitude and the equator,
most of the cooling sinking air moves back to the equator. The rest of the air flows toward the poles.
The air movements toward the equator are called trade winds – warm, steady breezes that blow almost
continuously. They are represented by arrows on the Pacific Ocean map. The trade winds curve to the west
whether they are travelling to the equator from the south or from the north. This curving is caused by the
Earth rotating on its axis from west to east.
The trade winds coming from the south and the north meet near the equator, where they are heated, and
so move upward, so there are no steady surface winds. This area of calm is called the doldrums – many
sailing ships have been becalmed there, for example the ship in The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner.