Most people don’t need to worry too much about the
temperature and pressure of the atmosphere, as long as there is some of it there to
breathe. However, pilots, airplane
designers, meteorologists, and many other people need to know how the
temperature and pressure typically change with altitude. Of course, on any given day at a particular
location, conditions might be different than the “typical” condition. Still, the typical conditions are useful
enough that there are several definitions of the Standard Atmosphere describing conditions clear out into what is usually considered outer space.
