Problem 1

A barometer is used to measure atmospheric pressure and is filled with a high-density fluid. The pressure P measured by the barometer is the height of the fluid column, h, times the density of the liquid ρ, times the acceleration due to gravity g, or

                                                                                    P=hpg

Find the height to which the liquid column will rise for pressures from 0 to 100 kPa for two different barometers. Assume that the first uses mercury, with a density of 13.56 g/cm³ and the second uses water with a density of 1.0 g/cm³. The acceleration due to gravity is 9.81 m/s². Your answer should be in a two dimensional matrix.

Problem 2

The American National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) measures the intensity of a hurricane season with the accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) index. The ACE for a season is the sum of the ACE for ech tropical storm with winds exceeding 35 knots (65 km/h). The maximum sustained winds (measured in knots) in the storm are measured or approximated every six hours. The values are squared and summed over the duration of the storm. The total is divided by 10,000, to make the parameter easier to use.

                                                                               ACE = ΣV²max/10⁴

This parameter is related to the energy of the storm, since kinetic energy is proportional to velocity squared. However, it does not take into account the size of the storm, which would be necessary for a true total energy estimate. Reliable storm data have been collected in the Atlantic Ocean since 1950, and are included in a file called ace.xlsx. Import this file into MATLAB using the command

                                                                      ace_data = xlsread('ACE.xlsx');

a) Import the data into MATLAB and name the array ace_data.

b) Extract the data from each column into individual arrays. You should have arrays named

• years (column 1) (year of record)
• ace (column 2) (ACE Index)
• tropical_storms (column 3) (# of tropical storms)
• hurricanes (column 4) (# of hurricanes category 1 - 5)
• major_hurricanes (column 5) (# of major hurricanes category 3 - 5)

c) Use the max function to determine which year had the highest

• ACE value
• Number of tropical storms
• Number of hurricanes
• Number of major hurricanes

d) Determine the mean and the median values for each column in the array except for the year.

e) Use the sortrows function to rearrange the ace_data array based on the ACE values, sorted from highest to lowest.