NAME _____________________________ ID # ____________ LAB # ________
Astronomy 1001 Dr. Leonard Kuhi
Midterm #1 Spring 2000
Read Instructions Carefully:
The essay questions of this exam are graded by more than one person, so it is imperative that your NAME BE LEGIBLY WRITTEN ON EACH PAGE OF THE ESSAY PORTION!
1. MARK THE ANSWERS YOU CHOOSE ON THIS TEST AS IT IS YOUR ONLY
OPPORTUNITY TO CHECK WHICH ANSWERS YOU GOT RIGHT OR
WRONG. This will not be done for you at a later time in the departmental office.
Exams will be returned to the alphabetical boxes in the North wall of the Physics
building approximately 3-4 days after the exam.
2. Print your NAME, ID # and SECTION # on your answer sheet where appropriate. Your
SECTION # should read 02. All three items are necessary for the proper scoring and
computer transfer of your scores.
3. Use a pencil, make your marks dark and neat, and erase thoroughly.
4. There is only one answer to each question. Choose the best answer.
5. You may use this test for scratch paper.
I. Multiple Choice (4 pts. each)
1. If Orion is rising in your eastern sky, where will it be in 6 hours?
a) slightly farther up in your eastern sky
b) on your meridian
c) setting in your western sky
d) below the horizon (you won't be able to see it)
e) unable to be determined without knowing what time of year it is
2. 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
d) the planet moves backward in its orbit around the Sun
e) the planet moves through constellations that are not part of the zodiac
3. Which of the following is not a characteristic of the inner planets?
a) they are relatively smaller than the outer planets
b) they all have solid, rocky surfaces
c) their orbits are relatively closely spaced
d) they all have substantial atmospheres
e) they have very few, if any, satellites
4. 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
5. 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 the 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
6. What causes the apparent retrograde motion of the planets?
a) as the Earth passes another planet, its gravitational pull slows down the other planet so that it appears to be traveling backward
b) when planets are farther from the Sun, they move slower than when they are nearer the Sun; it is during this slower period that they appear to move backwards
c) the other planets never really appear to move backward; the background stars shift due to the Earth's revolution around the Sun
d) as the Earth passes another planet, the other planet appears to move backward with respect to the background stars, but the planet's motion does not really change
e) apparent retrograde motion is an illusion created by turbulence in the Earth's atmosphere
7. We can't detect stellar parallax with naked-eye observations. Which of the following would make parallax easier to observe?
a) increasing the size of the Earth's orbit
b) speeding up the Earth's orbital motion
c) slowing down the Earth's orbital motion
d) speeding up the precession of the Earth's axis
e) getting away from streetlights
8. Patterns of stars in constellations hardly change in appearance over times of even a few thousand years. Why?
a) stars are fixed and never move
b) stars move, but they move very slowly - only a few kilometers in a thousand years
c) although most stars move through the sky, the brightest stars do not, and these are the ones that trace the patterns we see in the constellations
d) the stars in our sky actually move rapidly relative to us - thousands of kilometers per hour but are so far away that it takes a long time for this motion to make a noticeable change in the patterns in the sky
e) stars within a constellation move together as a group, which tends to hide their actual motion and prevent the pattern from changing
9. How did the Ptolemaic model explain the apparent retrograde motion of the planets?
a) it held that sometimes the planets moved backward along their circular orbits
b) it placed the Sun at the center so that the planet's apparent retrograde motion was seen as the Earth passed each one in its orbit
c) it varied the motion of the celestial sphere so that it sometimes moved backward
d) it held that the planets moved along small circles that moved on larger circles around the sun
e) it held that the planets moved along small circles that moved on larger circles around the Earth
10. What would happen if the Space Shuttle were launched with a speed greater than the Earth's escape velocity?
a) it would travel away from the Earth into the solar system
b) it would travel in a higher orbit around the Earth
c) it would take less time to reach its bound orbit
d) it would orbit the Earth at a faster velocity
e) it would be in an unstable orbit
11. A skater can spin faster by pulling in 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
12. 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
13. Suppose the angular separation of two stars is smaller than the angular resolution of your eyes. How will the stars appear to your eyes?
a) you will not be able to see these two stars at all
b) the two stars will look like a single point of light
c) the two stars will appear to be touching, looking rather like a small dumbbell
d) you will see two distinct stars
e) you will see only the larger of the two stars, not the smaller one
14. Which of the following statements best describes the two principal advantages of telescopes over eyes?
a) telescopes can collect far more light with far better angular resolution
b) telescopes can collect far more light with far greater magnification
c) telescopes have much more magnification and better angular resolution
d) telescopes collect more light and are unaffected by twinkling
e) telescopes can see farther without image distortion and can record more accurate colors
15. Which of the following is not an advantage of the Hubble Space Telescope over ground-based telescopes?
a) it is closer to the stars
b) stars do not twinkle when observed from space
c) it can observe infrared and ultraviolet light, as well as visible light
d) it never has to close because of bad weather
e) observers on the ground can use it at any time of day (i.e., not only during their night)
16. Which of the following statements is not an observed pattern of motion in our solar system?
a) most planets orbit at the same speed
b) all planets orbit the Sun in the same direction
c) most planetary orbits lie nearly in the same plane
d) most planets rotate in the same direction in which they orbit
e) almost all moons orbit their planet in the same direction as the planet's rotation
17. When we see a region of a planet that is not as heavily cratered as other regions, we conclude that
a) there is little volcanic activity to create craters
b) the planet is rotating very slowly and only one side was hit by impactors
c) the planet formed after the age of bombardment and missed out on getting hit by leftover planetesimals
d) the surface in the region is older than the surface in more heavily cratered regions
e) the surface in the region is younger than the surface in more heavily cratered regions
18. Which of the following describes volcanism?
a) the excavation of bowl-shaped depressions by asteroids or comets striking a planet's surface
b) the eruption of molten rock from a planet's interior to its surface
c) the disruption of a planet's surface by internal stresses
d) the wearing down or building up of geological features by wind, water, ice, and other phenomena of planetary weather
e) a mythic cult believing in the god “Vulcan”
19. Which two properties are most important in determining the surface temperature of a planet?
a) size and distance from the Sun
b) size and chemical composition
c) size and atmosphere
d) internal temperature and atmosphere
e) distance from the Sun and atmosphere
20. What mechanism is most responsible for generating the internal heat of Io that drives the volcanic activity?
a) accretion b) radioactive decay c) differentiation d) tidal heating e) bombardment
NAME ____________________________________ ID # ___________________
Section 2 - Midterm #1 Dr. Leonard V. Kuhi - Spring 2000
II. Short Answer
1. Consider the following statement, and explain whether or not it is sensible: Although all the known stars appear to rise in the east and set in the west, we might someday discover a star that will appear to rise in the west and set in the east. (15 points)
2. What are Kepler's Laws? State each one and explain what it means. (25 points)
NAME ____________________________________ ID # ___________________
Section 2 - Midterm #1 Dr. Leonard V. Kuhi - Spring 2000
3. What is the Greenhouse Effect? Explain what happens in the case of the Earth. What is the main greenhouse gas in the Earth's atmosphere? (25 points)
4. What key observation did Galileo make with his telescope that could not be explained by Ptolemy's geocentric model for the motions of the planets? Explain. (25 points)