Sunspot Activity

Enrichment Activity for Lessons 18-7 and 18-8

Skills: graphing, predicting

Suppose that you are an astronomer studying sunspots. You began your study in 1989. Each year you counted the number of sunspots. Here are your data.

Year

Number of Sunspots

Year

Number of Sunspots

Year

Number of Sunspots

Year

Number of Sunspots

1989

158

1992

94

1995

18

1998

64

1990

143

1993

55

1996

9

1999

93

1991

146

1994

30

1997

22

2000

120

PART A Make a bar graph of your data on the grid below.

PART B Use the bar graph to answer the following questions.

1. In what year did you count the most sunspots?

2. In what year did you count the fewest sunspots?

3. Do you see a pattern in the number of sunspots counted from 1989 to 2000? If so, describe the pattern.

4. If you had started your study in 1988, would you predict the number of sunspots would have been greater or less than 10?

5. If you had continued your study in 2001, would the number of sunspots in 2001 be greater or less than 60?

6. In which year could sunspot activity interfere with radio and television reception? Explain.