1. What factors contribute to the uneven heating of Earth by the sun?
2. How does the atmosphere respond to uneven solar heating? How does the rotation of Earth affect the resultant circulation?
3. Why doesn't the ocean boil away at the equator and freeze solid near the poles?
4. How are the geographical equator, meteorological equator, and ITCZ related? What happens at the ITCZ?
5. What is a monsoon? How is monsoon circulation affected by the position of the ITCZ?

6. Why does water tend to flow around the periphery of an ocean basin? Why are western boundary currents the fastest ocean currents? How do they differ from eastern boundary currents?
7. What causes El Niño? How does an El Niño situation differ from normal current flow? What are the usual consequences of El Niño?
8. What are countercurrents? Undercurrents? How might El Niño be related to these currents?
9. What is the role of ocean currents in the transport of heat? How can ocean currents affect climate? Contrast the climate of a mid-latitude coastal city at an eastern ocean boundary.
10. Can you think of ways ocean currents have (or might have) influenced history?

1. Although they move across the deepest ocean basins, seiches and tsunami are referred to as "shallow-water waves." How can this be?
2. How do particles move in an ocean wave? How is that movement similar to or different from the movement of particles in a wave in a spring or a rope? How does this relate to a stadium wave - a waveform made by sports fans in a circular arena?
3. What is the general relationship between wavelength and wave speed? How does water movement in a wave change with depth?
4. How can a rogue wave be larger than the theoretical maximum height of waves in a fully developed sea?
5. How is a progressive wave different from a standing wave? Must standing waves be orbital waves only, or can standing waves also form in shaken ropes or pushed-and-pulled springs?
6. How can large waves generated by a distant storm arrive at a shore first, to be followed later by small waves?

1. Although they move through all of the ocean, tides are referred to as shallow-water waves. How can that be?
2. What are the most important factors influencing the heights and times of tides? What tidal patterns are observed? Are there tides in the open ocean? If so, how do they behave?
3. How does the latitude of a coastal city affect the tides there - or does it?
4. From what you learned about tides in this chapter, where would you locate a plant that generated electricity from tidal power? What would be some advantages and disadvantages of using tides as an energy source?