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The temperature change is proportional to the solar radiation minus an energy loss which is large when the temperature is high and small when the temperature is low.
Mathematically, this hypothesis would be written as dT/dt = cS - f(T), where T is temperature, c is a proportionality constant, S is the intensity of solar radiation, and f(T) is the energy loss rate converted into a rate of change of temperature.
We can't make any predictions based on this hypothesis until we make some sort of guess as to the functional relationship between the energy loss rate f(T) and the temperature T. What seems most reasonable?
Now then, what predictions can be made from our hypothesis? Check all that apply:
These predictions look pretty good against the actual temperatures.
The temperature falls rapidly in late afternoon, when the incoming energy is near zero and the energy loss is still high. As night wears on, the energy loss decreases and the temperature levels off. In the morning, the most rapid rise occurs while the temperature is still cool but the sun is starting to beat down. The only observation which doesn't fit the hypothesis is the minimum temperature, which took place shortly before dawn rather than shortly after it.
Since most of the predictions are correct, and the random short-term fluctuations may be enough to have caused the minimum temperature to take place an hour before it should have, we shall consider this hypothesis to be our working hypothesis. As with any working hypothesis, we'll keep it unless evidence appears to the contrary or unless another hypothesis comes along which makes more precise, accurate predictions.
You may continue forward with the module.
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