The lapse rate is defined as the rate of decrease with height for an atmospheric variable. The variable involved is temperature unless specified otherwise. The terminology arises from the word lapse in the sense of a decrease or decline. While most often applied to Earth's atmosphere the concept can be extended to any gravitationally supported ball of gas.
Read more about Lapse Rate: Definition, Mathematical Definition, Types of Lapse Rates, Significance in Meteorology
Famous quotes containing the words lapse and/or rate:
“There is something even in the lapse of time by which time recovers itself.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I don’t know but a book in a man’s brain is better off than a book bound in calf—at any rate it is safer from criticism. And taking a book off the brain, is akin to the ticklish & dangerous business of taking an old painting off a panel—you have to scrape off the whole brain in order to get at it with due safety—& even then, the painting may not be worth the trouble.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)