Because most gas particles in the atmosphere are concentrated close to earth's surface, air pressure is greatest where?
atmosphere
ground level
seabed floor
at sea level
We live in a “sea” of air called the atmosphere. Can you feel the air in the atmosphere pressing against you? Not usually, but air actually exerts a lot of pressure because there’s so much of it. The atmosphere rises high above Earth’s surface, so it contains a huge number of gas particles. Most of them are concentrated close to Earth’s surface because of gravity and the weight of all the air in the atmosphere above them. As a result, air pressure is greatest at sea level and drops rapidly as you go higher in altitude. The Figure below shows how air pressure falls from sea level to the top of the atmosphere. In the graph, air pressure is measured in a unit called the millibar (mb). The SI unit of pressure is newton per square centimeter (N/cm 2 ).