Final Exam

Front 1

The geocentric model of the universe assumes that the Earth's ____ is zero

Back 1

motion

Front 2

A light-year is defined as the

Back 2

distance light travels in one year

Front 3

In space, light travels at about

Back 3

300,000 km/s

Front 4

The Sun appears to circle the celestial sphere once a year on the

Back 4

ecliptic

Front 5

The point in the sky directly overhead is called the

Back 5

zenith

Front 6

The meridian is

Back 6

an imaginary half-circle stretching from your souther horizon, through a point overhead, to your northern horizon

Front 7

Circumpolar stars

Back 7

remain constantly above the horizon and make counterclockwise circles around the north celestial pole

Front 8

____ is the change in direction that Earth's axis points in space; the cycle is 26,000 years long

Back 8

precession

Front 9

A spinning top stays upright or a spinning ice skater speeds up when she pulls her arms in because of the

Back 9

law of conservation of angular momentum

Front 10

___, an effect due to the Moon's varying orbital speed, allows us to see 59% of the Moon's surface over the course of a month even though we can never see more than 50% of the Moon's surface at any one time

Back 10

Libration

Front 11

Which one of the following is NOT a type of Lunar eclipse

Back 11

annular

Front 12

Which one of the following is NOT a type of solar eclipse

Back 12

penumbral

Front 13

A simple explanation of ___ is a major feature of a Sun-centered (heliocentric) solar system

Back 13

retrograde motion

Front 14

The white-light images produced by Galileo's early telescopes were tinged with color because of

Back 14

chromatic aberration

Front 15

Which one of the following statements about Tycho Brahae is NOT true

Back 15

he was an early user of the telescope

Front 16

Johannes Kepler was the first to show that planets move

Back 16

in elliptical orbits around the Sun

Front 17

Kepler's second law states that the line joining the Sun and a planet sweeps through

Back 17

equal ares in equal times

Front 18

Which one of the following observations of Venus made by Galileo is a proof of the heliocentric model

Back 18

a full set of phases

Front 19

Which one of the following did Galileo NOT observe

Back 19

Galaxies (other than our own MW)

Front 20

Copernicus' great work, published in 1543, that set forth the heliocentric model was titled

Back 20

De Revolutionibus

Front 21

The principle of Simplicity is also known as

Back 21

Occam's Razor

Front 22

The energy within a substance-the collective energy of all the particles-that is measured by its temperature is

Back 22

thermal energy

Front 23

An object is moving through space. If all corces are removed from the object, it will

Back 23

continue in a straight line at constant (non-accelerating) speed

Front 24

Mass-energy is given by the equation

Back 24

E=mc2

Front 25

When you are in free-fall you are

Back 25

weightless

Front 26

the units from the acceleration of gravity are

Back 26

m/s2

Front 27

Which one of the following is NOT a major contribution of Isaac Newton

Back 27

Newton invented the refracting telescope

Front 28

Which one of the following statements is NOT true (angular momentum)

Back 28

Angular momentum is conserved only under certain conditions

Front 29

The universal law of gravitation follows

Back 29

an inverse-square law with distance

Front 30

THe unit of power is a ___

Back 30

watt

Front 31

Light, a form of electromagnetic radiation, behaves like

Back 31

a wave and a particle

Front 32

black-body radiation is also called ___ radiation

Back 32

thermal

Front 33

A piece of glass or plastic etched with many closely spaced lines is called a

Back 33

diffraction grating

Front 34

Photons (think "light") of higher energy have

Back 34

higher frequency and shorter wavelength

Front 35

Spectra of hotter black bodies peak (i.e. have their highest brightness) at ___ wavelengths than spectra of colder black bodies

Back 35

shorter

Front 36

Which one of the following is the correct sequence on the electromagnetic spectrum from short to long wavelength

Back 36

gamma ray, x-ray, ultraviolet, visible, infrared, microwave, radio

Front 37

A blackbody spectrum depends on the ___ of the emitting object

Back 37

temperature

Front 38

As a train rushes toward a stationary observer standing by the tracks, the pitch of the train's whistle ___, and this effect is called ___

Back 38

goes up/blueshift

Front 39

Which one of the following statements is not true (doppler)

Back 39

doppler effect can tell us how fast an object is moving across our line of sight

Front 40

The human eye has an angular resolution of about

Back 40

1 arcminute

Front 41

Light-gathering power of a telescope

Back 41

is proportional to the diameter of the telescope's main light-collection device (i.e., lens or mirror)

Front 42

When an atom loses one or more electrons, it becomes

Back 42

an ion

Front 43

Angular resolution, even of large telescopes, is ultimately limited by the properties of light, called the___

Back 43

diffraction limit

Front 44

Which one of the following is NOT a factor in limiting Earth-bound visual observation of astronomical objects

Back 44

eclipses

Front 45

Linking two telescopes together in a technique called interferometry improves

Back 45

angular resolution

Front 46

The technology of using computer-controlled mirrors that change shape many times a minute to compensate for atmospheric distortions is called

Back 46

adaptive optics

Front 47

Nested arrays of grazing incidence mirrors allow astronomers to focus ___ radiation

Back 47

x-ray

Front 48

The Earth's atmosphere shields us from most kinds of electromagnetic radiation. Which radiation is NOT transmitted through the Earth's atmosphere to the surface where we live

Back 48

gamma ray, x-ray, almost all ultraviolet, and some infrared radiation

Front 49

The 88 major groupings of stars in the night sky are called

Back 49

constellations

Front 50

Scientific notation uses powers of ___ to express very large numbers

Back 50

10

Front 51

The more distant a planet is from the Sun, the planet's orbital speed will

Back 51

decrease (move slower)

Front 52

When a cool gas removes energy at a particular wavelength from radiation passing through it, it creates a

Back 52

absorption (dark) line

Front 53

Which one of the following statements about scientific models is true

Back 53

A model can be used to explain and predict real phenomena

Front 54

A blackbody is both a ___ absorber and a ___ emitter of radiation

Back 54

perfect/perfect

Front 55

___ comes from moving regions of air in the Earth's atmosphere

Back 55

Twinkling

Front 56

Nuclear fusion is

Back 56

the process of combining lightweight nuclei to make heavier nuclei

Front 57

Which one of the following statements about the celestial sphere is not true

Back 57

the "celestial sphere" is just another name for our universe

Front 58

If the Moon is setting at 7 AM the phase of the Moon must be

Back 58

full

Front 59

We see essentially the same face of the Moon at all times because

Back 59

the Moon's rotational and orbital periods are equal

Front 60

Which one of the following observations helped disprove the Earth-centered universe model

Back 60

Galileo's observations of the moons of Jupiter