what is a barometer?

Answer 1

A barometer is an instrument used to measure atmospheric pressure. It can measure the pressure exerted by the atmosphere by using water, air, or mercury. Pressure tendency can forecast short term changes in the weather. Numerous measurements of air pressure are used within surface weather analysis to help find surface troughs, high pressure systems, and frontal boundaries.
Types

[edit] Water-based barometers

This concept of "decreasing atmospheric pressure predicts stormy weather" is the basis for a primitive weather prediction device called a weather glass or thunder glass. It can also be called a "storm glass" or a "Goethe thermometer" (the writer Goethe popularized it in Germany). It consists of a glass container with a sealed body, half filled with water. A narrow spout connects to the body below the water level and rises above the water level, where it is open to the atmosphere. When the air pressure is lower than it was at the time the body was sealed, the water level in the spout will rise above the water level in the body; when the air pressure is higher, the water level in the spout will drop below the water level in the body. A variation of this type of barometer can be easily made at home.[1]

[edit] Mercury barometers

A standard mercury barometer has a glass column of about 30 inches (about 76 cm) in height, closed at one end, with an open mercury-filled reservoir at the base. Mercury in the tube adjusts until the weight of the mercury column balances the atmospheric force exerted on the reservoir. High atmospheric pressure places more force on the reservoir, forcing mercury higher in the column. Low pressure allows the mercury to drop to a lower level in the column by lowering the force placed on the reservoir. Since higher temperature at the instrument will reduce the density of the mercury the scale for reading the height of the mercury is adjusted to compensate for this effect according to the indication of a mercury thermometer included in the instrument case.
The first barometer of this type was devised in 1643 by Evangelista Torricelli. Torricelli had set out to create an instrument to measure the weight of air, or air pressure, and to study the nature of vacuums. He first used water, but it required a glass tube 60 feet long. He then used mercury, perhaps on a suggestion from Galileo Galilei, because it is significantly denser than water. To create a vacuum with mercury takes less than three feet, which makes its use more practical than a water barometer.[1]

Torricelli documented that the height of the mercury in a barometer changed slightly each day and concluded that this was due to the changing pressure in the atmosphere. He wrote: "We live submerged at the bottom of an ocean of elementary air, which is known by incontestable experiments to have weight".

The mercury barometer's design gives rise to the expression of atmospheric pressure in inches or millimeters (torr): the pressure is quoted as the level of the mercury's height in the vertical column. 1 atmosphere is equivalent to about 29.9 inches, or 760 millimeters, of mercury. The use of this unit is still popular in the United States, although it has been disused in favor of SI or metric units in other parts of the world. Barometers of this type normally measure atmospheric pressures between 28 and 31 inches of mercury.

Design changes to make the instrument more sensitive, simpler to read, and easier to transport resulted in variations such as the basin, siphon, wheel, cistern, Fortin, multiple folded, stereometric, and balance barometers. Fitzroy barometers combine the standard mercury thermometer with a thermometer, as well as a guide of how to interpret pressure changes.[2]

On June 5, 2007, a European Union directive was enacted to restrict the sale of mercury, thus effectively ending the production of mercury barometers in Europe.
An aneroid barometer uses a small, flexible metal box called an aneroid cell. This aneroid capsule(cell) is made from an alloy of beryllium and copper.[3] The evacuated capsule (or more usually capsules) is prevented from collapsing by a strong spring. Small changes in external air pressure cause the cell to expand or contract. This expansion and contraction drives mechanical levers such that the tiny movements of the capsule are amplified and displayed on the face of the aneroid barometer. Many models include a manually set needle which is used to mark the current measurement so a change can be seen. In addition, the mechanism is made deliberately 'stiff' so that tapping the barometer reveals whether the pressure is rising or falling as the pointer moves.

A barograph, which records a graph of some atmospheric pressure, uses an aneroid barometer mechanism to move a needle on a smoked foil or to move a pen upon paper, both of which are attached to a drum moved by clockwork.[4]

Answer 2

The instrument used for measuring the pressure of the atmosphere at any level is called the barometer.Air has weight and this weight on unit area of surface is termed as atmospheric pressure.In mercury type barometer,this pressure is made to balance the weight of a column of mercury kept in a mercury trough and the length of the column gives the pressure value which is expressed in Inches ,centimeter or millimeter.However, the value is usually given in millibar for meteorological purposes.
Barometers without using any liquid are known as aneroid barometers.In aneroid barometers,a closed and partially evacuted aluminium capsule is used for easuring the pressure value.

Answer 3

A barometer is an instrument used to measure atmospheric pressure. It can measure the pressure exerted by the atmosphere by using water, air, or mercury. Pressure tendency can forecast short term changes in the weather. Numerous measurements of air pressure are used within surface weather analysis to help find surface troughs, high pressure systems, and frontal boundaries.

Answer 4

A barometer is an instrument used to measure atmospheric pressure. It can measure the pressure exerted by the atmosphere by using water, air, or mercury. Pressure tendency can forecast short term changes in the weather. Numerous measurements of air pressure are used within surface weather analysis to help find surface troughs, high pressure systems, and frontal boundaries.

Answer 5

A barometer is a weather instrument that measures air pressure.

Answer 6

Barometer (bərŏm'ətər) , instrument for measuring atmospheric pressure. It was invented in 1643 by the Italian scientist Evangelista Torricelli, who used a column of water in a tube 34 ft (10.4 m) long. This inconvenient water column was soon replaced by mercury, which is denser than water and requires a tube about 3 ft (0.9 m) long. The mercurial barometer consists of a glass tube, sealed at one end and filled with pure mercury. After being heated to expel the air, it is inverted in a small cup of mercury called the cistern. The mercury in the tube sinks slightly, creating above it a vacuum (the Torricellian vacuum). Atmospheric pressure on the surface of the mercury in the cistern supports the column in the tube, which varies in height with variations in atmospheric pressure and hence with changes in elevation, generally decreasing with increases in height above sea level. Standard sea-level pressure is 14.7 lb per sq in. (1,030 grams per sq cm), which is equivalent to a column of mercury 29.92 in. (760 mm) in height; the decrease with elevation is approximately 1 in. (2.5 cm) for every 900 ft (270 m) of ascent. In weather forecasting, barometric readings are usually measured on electronically controlled instruments often tied to computers. The results are plotted on base maps so that analyses of weather-producing pressure systems can be made. At a given location a storm is generally anticipated when the barometer is falling rapidly; when the barometer is rising, fair weather may usually be expected. The aneroid barometer is a metallic box so made that when the air has been partially removed from the box the surface depresses or expands with variation of air pressure on it; this motion is transmitted by a train of levers to a pointer which shows the pressure on a graduated scale. A barograph is a self-recording aneroid barometer; an altimeter is often an aneroid barometer used to calculate altitude..

Answer 7

measures air pressure