Exam Tomorrow

1. Exam Tomorrow essay & multiple choice questions Covers chapters 1-8, S1 & 14 Allowed one standard sheet of notes with writing on one side only

2. Which of the following best describes the modern definition of a constellation? A) a region of the celestial sphere B) a pattern of bright stars in the sky C) a Greek mythological figure D) a collection of stars that are near one another in space E) a group of stars that all lie at about the same distance from Earth

3. Which of the following statements about the celestial equator is true at all latitudes? A) It lies along the band of light we call the Milky Way. B) It represents an extension of Earth's equator onto the celestial sphere. C) It cuts the dome of your sky exactly in half. D) It extends from your horizon due east, through your zenith, to your horizon due west. E) It extends from your horizon due north, through your zenith, to your horizon due south.

4. What is the ecliptic? A) when the Moon passes in front of the Sun B) the Moon's apparent path along the celestial sphere C) the constellations commonly used in astrology to predict the future D) the Sun's daily path across the sky E) the Sun's apparent path along the celestial sphere

5. You are standing on Earth's equator. Which way is Polaris, the North star? A) 30 degrees up, due West B) on the northern horizon C) directly overhead D) The answer depends on whether it's winter or summer. E) The answer depends on what time of day (or night) it is.

6. Which of the following statements about circumpolar stars is true at all latitudes? A) They are the stars close to the north celestial pole. B) They always remain above your horizon. C) They make relatively small circles, traveling clockwise around the north celestial pole. D) Like all other stars, they rise in the east and set in the west. E) You cannot see them from the Southern Hemisphere.

7. Why is it summer in the Northern Hemisphere when it is winter in the Southern Hemisphere? A) The Northern Hemisphere is closer to the Sun than the Southern Hemisphere. B) The Northern Hemisphere is "on top" of Earth and therefore receives more sunlight. C) The Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun and receives more direct sunlight. D) The Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun and receives more indirect sunlight. E) It isn't: both hemispheres have the same seasons at the same time.

8. Which of the following is not a phase of the Moon? A) first-quarter Moon B) third-quarter Moon C) half Moon D) new Moon E) full Moon

9. If the Moon is setting at 6 A.M., the phase of the Moon must be A) first quarter. B) third quarter. C) full. D) new. E) waning crescent.

10. If the Moon is setting at noon, the phase of the Moon must be A) full. B) first quarter. C) third quarter. D) waning crescent. E) waxing crescent.

11. If the Moon rises around 3 A.M., its phase must be A) full. B) first quarter. C) third quarter. D) waning crescent. E) waxing crescent.

12. Suppose you live on the Moon. How long is a solar day (i.e., from sunrise to sunrise)? A) 23 hours 56 minutes B) 24 hours C) a lunar month D) a year E) about 18 years

13. What effect or effects would be most significant if the Moon's orbital plane were exactly the same as the ecliptic plane? A) Solar eclipses would be much rarer. B) Solar eclipses would be much more frequent. C) Solar eclipses would last much longer. D) both A and C E) both B and C

14. If the Moon is relatively far from Earth, so that the umbra does not reach Earth, someone directly behind the umbra will see A) a penumbral lunar eclipse. B) a partial lunar eclipse. C) a partial solar eclipse. D) an annular eclipse. E) no eclipse.

15. What happens during the apparent retrograde motion of a planet? A) The planet rises in the west and sets in the east. B) The planet appears to move westward with respect to the stars over a period of many nights. C) The planet moves backward through the sky over the course of a night. D) The planet moves backward in its orbit around the Sun. E) The planet moves through constellations that are not part of the zodiac.

16. Which of the following statements about stellar parallax is true? A) We observe all stars to exhibit at least a slight amount of parallax. B) Stellar parallax was first observed by ancient Greek astronomers. C) The amount of parallax we see depends on how fast a star is moving relative to us. D) It takes at least 10 years of observation to measure a star's parallax. E) The closer a star is to us, the more parallax it exhibits.

17. When we see Venus in its full phase, what phase would Earth be in as seen by a hypothetical Venetian? A) full B) new C) first quarter D) third quarter E) waning crescent

18. From Kepler's third law, a hypothetical planet that is twice as far from the Sun as Earth should have a period of A) 1/2 Earth year. B) 1 Earth year. C) 2 Earth years. D) more than 2 Earth years. E) It depends on the planet's mass.

19. What is meant by Occam's Razor? A) a well-designed experiment that clearly shows the differences between two competing theories B) a poorly designed experiment that fails to show the difference between two competing theories C) the idea that scientists should prefer the simpler of two models that agree equally well with observations D) the fine line between science and pseudoscience E) the shaving implement of a medieval scholar

20. Which of the following is the reason for the solar day being longer than a sidereal day? A) precession of Earth's axis B) the tilt of Earth's axis C) the combined effect of the rotation of Earth and its orbit about the Sun D) Earth year being a non-integer number of Earth days E) the non-circular orbit of Earth around the Sun

21. The lunar month is longer than the sidereal month because A) the Moon completes the cycle of lunar phases before it completes a full orbit around Earth. B) the Moon has to complete more than one full orbit around Earth to complete the cycle of lunar phases. C) the Moon orbits Earth faster than Earth orbits the Sun. D) the Moon orbits Earth faster than Earth rotates. E) the lunar month is based on the Moon's orbit, while the sidereal month is based on Earth's orbit.

22. Which of the following is the reason for the leap years? A) precession of Earth's axis B) the tilt of Earth's axis C) the combined effect of the rotation of Earth and its orbit about the Sun D) Earth year being a non-integer number of Earth days E) the non-circular orbit of Earth around the Sun

23. The Sun is rising in the east and will be on your meridian in 2 hours. What time is it? A) 2 A.M. B) 2 P.M. C) 10 A.M. D) 10 P.M. E) noon

24. Suppose you lived at Earth's equator. Which of the following statements would not be true? A) The north celestial pole is directly on your horizon, due north (with Polaris quite nearby). B) The south celestial pole is directly on your horizon, due south. C) Every day of the year, the Sun is above your horizon for 12 hours and below it for 12 hours. D) The celestial equator goes through your sky from due east on your horizon, through 50° altitude in the south, to due west on the horizon. E) No stars are circumpolar.

25. The south celestial pole appears on your meridian at an altitude of 30° in the south. Where are you? A) latitude = 30°S B) latitude = 60°S C) latitude = 30°N D) latitude = 60°N E) the South Pole

26. Suppose you live at latitude 40°N. Which of the following describes the path of the celestial equator through your sky? A) It goes from due south on your horizon, to your zenith, to due north on your horizon. B) It goes from due east on your horizon, to your zenith, to due west on your horizon. C) It goes from due east on your horizon, to an altitude of 50° in the south, to due west on your horizon. D) It goes from due east on your horizon, to an altitude of 40° in the south, to due west on your horizon. E) It goes from due east on your horizon, to an altitude of 40° in the north, to due west on your horizon.

27. The time between rising and setting of a star A) is always 12 hours. B) depends on the star's declination. C) depends on the star's right ascension. D) depends on the observer's latitude. E) depends on the observer's longitude.

28. Which of the following best describes the Tropic of Cancer? A) It is any place where it is always very warm. B) It is another name for the equator. C) It is a place where the Sun appears to remain stationary in the sky. D) It is a place where the Sun is directly overhead at noon on the summer solstice. E) It is a place where the Sun is directly overhead at noon on the spring equinox.

29. Suppose the date is March 21 and the Sun crosses your meridian at an altitude of 23.5° in the north. Where are you? A) the equator B) the Tropic of Cancer C) the Tropic of Capricorn D) the Arctic Circle E) the Antarctic Circle

30. Which of the following is an example in which you are traveling at constant speed but not at constant velocity? A) rolling freely down a hill in a cart, traveling in a straight line B) driving backward at exactly 50 km/hr C) driving around in a circle at exactly 100 km/hr D) jumping up and down, with a period of exactly 60 hops per minute E) none of the above

31. As long as an object is not gaining or losing mass, a net force on the object will cause a change in A) acceleration. B) direction. C) weight. D) speed. E) velocity.

32. Suppose an object is moving in a straight line at 50 mi/hr. According to Newton's first law of motion, the object will A) continue to move in the same way forever, no matter what happens. B) continue to move in the same way until it is acted upon by a force. C) eventually slow down and come to a stop. D) continue to move in a straight line forever if it is in space, but slow and stop otherwise.

33. The fact that the Voyager spacecraft continue to speed out of the solar system, even though its rockets have no fuel, is an example of A) Newton's first law of motion. B) Newton's second law of motion. C) Newton's third law of motion. D) the universal law of gravitation. E) none of the above.

34. A skater can spin faster by pulling her arms closer to her body or spin slower by spreading her arms out from her body. This is due to A) the law of gravity. B) Newton's third law. C) conservation of momentum. D) conservation of angular momentum. E) conservation of energy.

35. What does temperature measure? A) the average mass of particles in a substance B) the average size of particles in a substance C) the average kinetic energy of particles in a substance D) the total number of particles in a substance E) the total potential energy of particles in a substance

36. Considering Einstein's famous equation, E = mc2, which of the following statements is true? A) Mass can be turned into energy, but energy cannot be turned back into mass. B) It takes a large amount of mass to produce a small amount of energy. C) A small amount of mass can be turned into a large amount of energy. D) You can make mass into energy if you can accelerate the mass to the speed of light.

37. When a rock is held above the ground, we say it has some potential energy. When we let it go, it falls and we say the potential energy is converted to kinetic energy. Finally, the rock hits the ground. What has happened to the energy? A) The energy goes into the ground and, as a result, the orbit of the earth about the Sun is slightly changed. B) The energy goes to producing sound and to heating the ground, rock, and surrounding air. C) The rock keeps the energy inside it (saving it for later use). D) It is lost forever. Energy does not have to be conserved. E) It is transformed back into gravitational potential energy.

38. According to the universal law of gravitation, the force due to gravity is A) directly proportional to the square of the distance between objects. B) inversely proportional to the square of the distance between objects. C) directly proportional to the distance between objects. D) inversely proportional to the distance between objects. E) not dependent on the distance between objects.

39. The force of gravity is an inverse square law. This means that, if you double the distance between two large masses, the gravitational force between them A) also doubles. B) strengthens by a factor of 4. C) weakens by a factor of 4. D) weakens by a factor of 2. E) is unaffected.

40. The orbital period of a geosynchronous satellite is A) 23 hours 56 minutes. B) 24 hours. C) 365.25 days. D) 12 years. E) 26,000 years.

41. The mass of Jupiter can be calculated by A) measuring the orbital period and distance of Jupiter's orbit around the Sun. B) measuring the orbital period and distance of one of Jupiter's moons. C) measuring the orbital speed of one of Jupiter's moons. D) knowing the Sun's mass and measuring how Jupiter's speed changes during its elliptical orbit around the Sun. E) knowing the Sun's mass and measuring the average distance of Jupiter from the Sun.

42. Which of the following best describes the origin of ocean tides on Earth? A) Tides are caused by the difference in the force of gravity exerted by the Moon across the sphere of the earth. B) The Moon's gravity pulls harder on water than on land, because water is less dense than rock. C) Tides are caused by the 23 1/2° tilt of the earth's rotational axis to the ecliptic plane. D) Tides are caused primarily by the gravitational force of the Sun. E) Tides are caused on the side of Earth nearest the Moon because the Moon's gravity attracts the water.

43. At which lunar phase(s) are tides most pronounced (e.g., the highest high tides)? A) first quarter B) new Moon C) full Moon D) both new and full Moons E) both first and third quarters

44. Imagine we’ve discovered a planet orbiting another star at 1 AU every 6 months. The planet has a moon that orbits the planet at the same distance as our Moon, but it takes 2 months. What can we infer about this planet? A) It is more massive than Earth. B) It is less massive than Earth. C) It has the same mass as Earth. D) We cannot answer the question without knowing the mass of the star. E) We cannot answer the question without knowing the mass of the moon.

45. If a material is transparent, then it A) reflects light well. B) absorbs light well. C) transmits light well. D) scatters light well. E) emits light well.

46. Grass (that is healthy) looks green because A) it emits green light and absorbs other colors. B) it absorbs green light and emits other colors. C) it transmits green light and emits other colors. D) it reflects green light and absorbs other colors.

47. Everything looks red through a red filter because A) the filter emits red light and absorbs other colors. B) the filter absorbs red light and emits other colors. C) the filter transmits red light and absorbs other colors. D) the filter reflects red light and transmits other colors.

48. How are wavelength, frequency, and energy related for photons of light? A) Longer wavelength means lower frequency and lower energy. B) Longer wavelength means higher frequency and lower energy. C) Longer wavelength means higher frequency and higher energy. D) Longer wavelength means lower frequency and higher energy. E) There is no simple relationship because different photons travel at different speeds.

49. Without telescopes or other aid, we can look up and see the Moon in the night sky because it A) emits visible light. B) emits thermal radiation. C) reflects infrared light. D) reflects visible light. E) glows through radioactive decay.

50. At extremely high temperatures (e.g., millions of degrees), which of the following best describes the phase of matter? A) a gas of rapidly moving molecules B) a plasma consisting of positively charged ions and free electrons C) a gas consisting of individual, neutral atoms, but no molecules D) a plasma consisting of rapidly moving, neutral atoms E) none of the above (At these extremely high temperatures, matter cannot exist.)