Astronomy 105 Review for Exam #1 Spring 2004 RBF
1) The circular shape of the Earth’s
shadow on the Moon led early
astronomers to conclude that
a) The Earth is a sphere.
b) The Earth is at the center of the Solar System.
c) The Earth must be at rest.
d) The Moon must orbit the Sun.
e) The Moon is a sphere.
2) Which statement about Right
Ascension is false?
a) Each hour is equal to 15
degrees of sky.
b) Its origin is the Vernal
Equinox.
c) It is most like latitude in
geography.
d) It is measured eastward in units of
time.
3) Scientists today do not believe the
Ptolemaic model because
a) It is too old.
b) It is too complicated.
c) Ptolemy has been proven to be a fraud.
d) It has been proven to be incorrect.
4) A heliocentric solar system
a) Places the sun at the center with orbiting planets
b) Places the earth at the center with orbiting sun and planets.
c) Places the moon at the center with orbiting sun and planets.
d) Places you at the center with orbiting sun and planets
5) Galileo Galilei was the first in
recorded Western history to
a) Develop a complete theory of motion.
b) Discover radio waves.
c) Observe Pluto with his own home-made telescope.
d) Observe the moons of Jupiter with his own home-made telescope.
6) What is an epicycle supposed to
explain
a) Solar eclipses.
b) Seasons.
c) Retrograde motion of the planets
d) Phases of the Moon.
e) Precession.
7) What is the range of values for Right
Ascension?
a) –90 to 90 degrees.
b) 0 to 360 degrees.
c) 0 to 24 degrees.
d) –12 to 25 hours.
8) You write your home address in the
order of street, town, state, and so on.
Suppose you were writing your
cosmic address in a similar manner.
Which of the following is the correct
order?
a) Earth, Milky Way, Solar System, Local Group.
b) Earth, Solar System, Local Group, Milky Way.
c) Earth, Solar System, Milky Way, Local Group.
d) Solar System, Earth, Local Group, Milky Way.
e) Solar System, Local Group, Milky Way, Earth.
9) A planet in retrograde motion
a) Rises in the west and sets in the east
b) Shifts westward with respect to the stars.
c) Will be at the north celestial pole.
d) Will be exactly overhead no matter where you are on Earth.
10) As the moon revolves around the
Earth it completes one full cycle of
phases. This time is called
a) A sidereal month.
b) A synodic (lunar) month.
c) A regular month
d) A leap month.
11) The celestial coordinate
Corresponding to the geographic
Latitude is
a) The right ascension.
b) The left ascension.
c) The declination.
d) The inclination.
12) One of Kepler’s laws of planetary
motion states that
a) The planets orbit the sun in perfect circles.
b) The orbital paths of the planets sweep out equal areas of an imaginary ellipse, in equal times.
c) If something can go wrong, it will.
d) The planets orbit the sun in epicycles
13) The point directly overhead in the
night sky is known as the
a) zenith
b) north celestial pole
c) ecliptic
d) all of these
14) Why is there a two-day difference in
the sidereal and synodic months?
a) The moon speeds up at perigee, and slows down at apogee.
b) The Earth has also revolved around the Sun.
c) The sidereal day is four minutes shorter than the solar day, and it all adds up.
d) None of these are correct.
15) An early model of the universe
developed by Ptolemy asserted that
a) The sun and planets revolve about the Earth in perfect circles along a deferent with epicycles.
b) The sun and planets revolve about the Earth in ellipses along a deferent with epicycles.
16) Two planets have identical diameters
but differ in mass by a factor of 25. The more massive planet therefore has an escape velocity.
a) 25 times larger than the other.
b) 25 times smaller than the other.
c) 5 times larger than the other.
d) 25 times larger than the other.
e) 625 times larger than the other.
17) As a star rises and moves across the
sky, which of the following change?
a) Its right ascension.
b) Its declination.
c) Its azimuth.
d) Both (a) and (b).
e) None of the above.
18) Long ago, people probably observed
the heavens because
a) Learning the constellations was considered a rite of adulthood.
b) They were looking for signs of “ancient astronoauts”
c) They relied on their knowledge of the heavens to know when to plant crops and how to navigate ships.
d) They believed that gods inhabited a celestial realm
19) The celestial coordinate
corresponding to the geographic
longitude is
a) The right ascension.
b) The left ascension.
c) The declination.
d) The inclination.
20) What was the greatest contribution
of the Greeks to modern thought?
a) They showed that the planets orbit the sun.
b) Their concept of the universe as something to be studied, questioned, and explained.
c) Their rich mythology.
d) Their ability to make precise measurements.
21) When your eye is dark-adapted
a) Your pupils are smallest.
b) Your pupils are biggest.
c) Your color vision is at its most
sensitive.
d) Your eye is most sensitive to
light.
e) Both (b) and (d)
22) If an object moves a curved path at a
constant speed, you can infer that
a) A force is acting on it.
b) It is accelerating.
c) It is uniform motion.
d) Both (a) and (b) are true.
e) Neither (a) or (b) is true.
23) A geocentric solar system
a) Places the sun at the center with orbiting planets
b) Places the earth at the center with orbiting sun and planets.
c) Places the moon at the center with orbiting sun and planets.
d) Places you at the center with orbiting sun and planets.
24) A Solar eclipse occurs when
a) The Earth orbits into the moon’s shadow.
b) The moon orbits into the Earth’s shadow
c) The moon blocks the sun.
25) Kepler’s third law
a) relates a planet’s orbital period to the size of its orbit around the Sun.
b) relates a body’s mass to its gravitational attraction.
c) Allowed him to predict when eclipses occur.
d) Allowed him to measure the distance to nearby stars.
e) Showed that the Sun is much farther away than the Moon.
26) Galileo used his observations of the
changing phases of Venus to
demonstrate that
a) the Sun moves around the
Earth
b) the Universe is infinite in size.
c) the Earth is a sphere.
d) The Moon orbits the Earth.
e) Venus follows an orbit around the
Sun rather than around the Earth.
27) Which of the following astronomical
systems is/are held together by
gravity?
a) The Sun.
b) The Solar System.
c) The Milky Way.
d) The Local Group.
e) All of them are.
28) Which statement about the day is
false?
a) Relative to the stars, the Earth rotates in 23 hours and 56 minutes.
b) The solar day is measured from the Sun’s noon transit until the next one.
c) Normal timekeeping is based on the solar day.
d) The sidereal day is four minutes longer due to our revolution around the Sun
29) Given that the planet orbiting around the nearby star 51 Pegasi is about 20X as large as the Earth,
but also 400x more massive, if you weighed 50 kilos here, on that planet you weigh:
a) 200 kilos.
b) 100 kilos.
c) 50 kilos.
d) 16 kilos.
30) Into how may constellations is the
sky divided?
a) 32
b) 67
c) 88
31) The place of the ecliptic where the Sun stops its northward motion is the:
a) Vernal equinox
b) Summer solstice
c) Winter equinox.
d) Autumnal solstice
32) If you are standing at the Earth’s north pole, which of the following will be directly overhead?
a) The celestial equator.
b) The ecliptic.
c) The zodiac.
d) The north celestial pole.
e) The sun.
33) Which statement about the South Pole is false?
a) Polaris sits directly overhead.
b) The Sun rises there about September 21st.
c) At its highest in December, the Sun still never gets more than 23.5 degrees high.
d) The Southern Cross would be visible there, all night, every night.
34) The path of the sun has a specific name in the celestial sphere model called
a) The celestial equator.
b) The ecliptic.
c) The north celestial pole.
d) The summer solstice.
35) The gravitational force exerted by the Sun on the earth is the same
magnitude as the gravitational force exerted by the Earth on the Sun.
a) True.
b) False.
36) The light-year is a unit of
a) time.
b) distance.
c) speed.
d) weight.
e) age.
37) The stars relative to the earth can be grouped into specific patterns called
a) Demographics.
b) Space stations.
c) Celestial sphere.
d) Constellations.
38) What is the range of values for declination?
a) –90 to 90 degrees.
b) 0 to 360 degrees.
c) 0 to 24 degrees.
d) –12 to 25 hours.
39) If the distance between two bodies is quadrupled, the gravitational force between them is
a) Increased by a factor of 4.
b) Decreased by a factor of ¼.
c) Decreased by a factor of 1/8.
d) Decreased by a factor of 1/16.
e) Decreased by a factor of 1/64.
40) A lunar eclipse occurs when
a) The Earth orbits into the moon’s shadow.
b) The moon orbits into the Earth’s shadow.
c) The moon blocks the sun.
41) Which of the following demonstrate the property of inertia?
a) A car skidding on a slippery road.
b) The oil tanker Exxon Valdez
running aground.
c) A brick on a tabletop.
d) Whipping a tablecloth out from under the dishes set on a table.
e) All of the above.
42) The degree of the elliptical orbit can be stipulated by its
a) Hyperactivity.
b) Eccentricity.
c) Perihelion.
d) Radius.
43) The Lunar phase which cannot be seen is
a) Third quarter.
b) Waxing Crescent.
c) Full Moon.
d) New Moon.
44) What celestial line is created by the Earth’s rotation?
a) Meridian .
b) Equator.
d) Ecliptic.
45) What celestial line is created by the Earth’s revolution around the Sun?
a) Meridian .
b) Equator.
c) Ecliptic.
d) Equinoxes.
46) Right ascension is one coordinate of the position of a star, measured along the ...
a) ecliptic.
b) observer’s horizon.
c) celestial equator
d) observer’s meridian.
47) The zodiac constellations can be found on your star chart near the
a) zenith
b) ecliptic
c) celestial equator
d) Prime Meridian
48) The points where the ecliptic crosses the celestial equator on your star chart are called
a) Zodiacs
b) celestial poles
c) solstices
d) equinoxes
1) A
2) C
3) D
4) A
5) D
6) C
7) B
8) C
9) B
10) B
11) C
12) B
13) A
14) B
15) A
16) C
17) C
18) C
19) A
20) B
21) B
22) A
23) B
24) C
25) A
26) E
27) E
28) D
29) C
30) C
31) B
32) D
33) A
34) B
35) A
36) B
37) D
38) A
39) D
40) B
41) E
42) B
43) D
44) B
45) C
46) C
47) B
48) D
