Question

The drawing shows a cross section where the land meets the sea. The section covered is 5 kilometers. On a hot day, in which direction, indicated by the four arrows, is the wind most likely to blow?

• A. A
• B. B
• C. C
• D. D

Hint:

Remember that land heats up faster than the sea, and surface wind always flows from the higher pressure (cooler) side to the lower pressure (warmer) side.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is D

This question is really about how land and water heat up differently in sunlight, and what that does to the air sitting above them. Land is made of rock and soil, which heat up fast and reach a high temperature quickly in strong sun. Water takes much longer to warm because it can absorb a lot of heat without its temperature rising as fast. So by the middle of a hot day, the land has become noticeably warmer than the sea right next to it.

1. What happens over the land: The hot land surface warms the air touching it. Warm air expands and becomes lighter than the air around it, so it rises upward. As this air lifts away from the ground, air pressure at ground level over the land drops a little.
2. What happens over the sea: The sea surface has stayed cooler, so air pressure at the sea surface at ground level stays comparatively higher than over the land.
3. How wind actually forms: Wind is simply air flowing from a place of higher pressure to a place of lower pressure. Since the sea surface now has the higher pressure and the land surface has the lower pressure, air at ground level moves from the sea toward the land. This is the sea breeze.
4. Matching this to the diagram: Only arrow D is a horizontal arrow drawn right at the shoreline pointing from the sea side toward the land side. Arrows A and B are vertical, and arrow C points the opposite way (land breeze pattern, happens at night).

So the arrow that correctly shows which way the wind blows at ground level on a hot day is arrow D, running from the sea toward the land.

Let's summarize:

• Land heats faster than the sea, so on a hot day the land surface becomes warmer than the sea.
• Warmer air over the land rises, lowering surface pressure there, while the sea surface keeps a slightly higher pressure.
• Surface wind flows from the higher pressure sea to the lower pressure land, matching arrow D.

Therefore, on a hot day, the wind is most likely to blow in the direction shown by arrow D.