Paragraph on “The Weight of Our Atmosphere” complete paragraph for Class 9, Class 10, Class 11 and Class 12

The Weight of Our Atmosphere

Just as an orange is surrounded by peel, the Earth is surrounded all around by a 640 km thick shell of air. This shell can be broken down into various layers and it comprises of about 20 different types of gases out of which Nitrogen and Oxygen have the highest percentage. Without the atmosphere it would be impossible to live on the Earth since it protects us both from the harmful rays of the Sun and from the cold in outer space. The term weight is used to measure Earth’s gravitational pull on an object. The atmosphere exerts a constant pressure of one kilogram per centimetre at sea level and this decreases as we go higher and higher. We don’t feel the pressure because it is equal from all sides and because our body is used to it. If the atmosphere were weighed then it would weigh about 5,150,000,000,000,000 tons. During the daylight the Atmosphere scatters the blue light coming from the sun, which explains the blue sky, and in the evenings and early mornings it scatters the blue light so much that it is absorbed in it thus producing the red glow in the sky, this effect is further explained on page 30.