Meteorology

Questions 7 and 8. Listen as a professor leads a class discussion. Today, instead of lecturing, I'm going to start out by taking questions. You all know that the exam's tomorrow, so today I'd like to spend time talking about whatever's unclear to you. Yes, Anne, what's your question? I've got a question about the theories of Redfield and Espy. I understand that they were meteorologists, American meteorologists in the nineteenth century, and that they had different theories about how storms behave, but I'm .. , urn, not quite sure I really understand the two theories. Could you explain them again? OK. It's true that **William Redfield and James Espy were two nineteenth-century meteorologists and they had different theories on the behavior of storms. Espy argued that centripetal force was at work in storms.** Anne, do you understand what direction the winds would be moving if centripetal force were involved? I think so. **Centripetal force would cause winds to move inward from all directions toward the center of the storm.** But that's not what really happens during a storm, is it? **Winds don't move inward toward the center of the storm.** That's right, Anne. Espy's theory was that centripetal force pushed the winds of a storm inward toward the center from all directions, but' this theory hasn't proven very accurate .... Now, the other meteorologist was Redfield. Did Redfield agree or disagree with Espy? I know that **Redfield disagreed with Espy,** but I'm not quite sure how. Can someone else explain what Redfield believed? What about you, Chris? Sure. **Redfield argued that the winds in a storm rotated around the center of the storm, so the winds would be moving in a circular path. And he believed that the winds moved in a counterclockwise direction, which means that they move in the opposite direction from the direction that a clock moves.** Yes, that's correct. Is that clear to you, Anne? So, **Espy believed that centripetal force caused winds to move inward toward the center of a storm, and, urn, Redfield believed that the winds in a storm moved in a counterclockwise direction.** Exactly. Now, for the most important question .... We've already said that Espy's theory on how the winds in a storm behave wasn't very accurate. What about Redfield's theory? Was his theory accurate or inaccurate? Anne? I think Redfield's description was quite close to what actually happens in a storm. That's right. Now, ... question? 7. WHAT IS THE TOPIC OF THIS DISCUSSION? 8. WHY IS THIS TOPIC BEING DISCUSSED?