Question

The atmosphere becomes colder at higher elevation. As an average the standard atmospheric absolute temperature can be expressed as Tatm = 518 - 3.84 × 10−3 z, where z is the elevation in feet. How cold is it outside an airplane cruising at 32000 ft expressed in Rankine and in Fahrenheit?

Answer 1

For an elevation of z = 32 000 ft we get

Tatm = 518 – 3.84 × 10−3 z

= 395.1 R

To express that in degrees Fahrenheit we get

TF = T – 459.67 = −64.55 F