Exam 1

A  north, and seasons; as Earth rotates

B  star groups are stars close together

C  our astrological future

D  star groups are stars close together

E  Greek legends

A  TRUE

B  FALSE

A  Stars appear to rise above the horizon (or fall beneath) as the Earth rotates

B  Like the Sun, stars move up over the horizon during the daytime

C  Stars move around the Earth

D  Rising is dawn and setting is dusk

A  never. It also doesn’t revolve about anything.

B  once an Earth day

C  never, because the same face always faces Earth.

D  roughly once a month

A  day; year

B  month; year

C  year; day

D  month; day

A  TRUE

B  FALSE

A  TRUE

B  FALSE

A  may appear anywhere in the sky.

B  always appears within a few degrees of the celestial equator.

C  generally appears opposite the Sun.

D  always appears within a few degrees of the solar ecliptic.

A  June 20-21

B  March 20-21

C  December 20-21

D  September 21-22

A  the revolution of the Earth.

B  the rotation of the Earth.

C  the motion of the Sun around the galaxy.

D  the motion of the planets across the sky.

A  as far apart as possible

B  in ellipses in random directions

C  bound by gravity of the planets

D  around the Sun in roughly the same plane

A  The Moon’s orbit is an elliptic.

B  The Moon’s orbit is not the solar ecliptic.

C  The Moon orbits about the Sun and is independent of Earth.

D  The Moon has a chaotic orbit. (The Moon has more mass on one side.)

A  TRUE

B  FALSE

A  Total lunar eclipses last longer than total solar eclipses

B  Lunar eclipses don’t occur monthly, because the inclination of the Moon’s orbit around the Earth relative to the Earth’s orbit around the Sun.

C  Lunar eclipses are predictable.

D  At a given time, a total lunar eclipse is visible only from a small part of the Earth’s surface.

E  The Moon is still visible during a total lunar eclipse because of light going through the Earth’s atmosphere.

A  According to Kepler’s first law, the orbit of planets are ellipses with the Sun at one focus; there is no object at the second focus.

B  If you lived on Mercury, you would notice that Earth exhibits retrograde motion for a while every year.

C  Copernicus’ model of the Solar System was accepted shortly after being proposed, because it provided significantly more accurate positions of the planets than did the Ptolemaic system.

D  As seen from Earth’s surface, planets rise in the east and set in the west, even when they undergo retrograde motion.

E  Our observations of a full or gibbous Venus provide evidence against the Ptolemaic, Earth-centered model of the Solar System

A  They can be viewed safely with the naked eye, for the entire event.

B  They can be observed from an entire hemisphere on Earth.

C  They look reddish primarily due to the refraction and scattering of light passing through the Earth’s atmosphere.

D  They last about the same amount of time.

E  They occur when the Sun or Moon are in Earth’s shadow.

A  the Milky Way is full of stars.

B  gravity.

C  the Sun is at the center of the universe.

D  elliptical orbits.

A  FALSE

B  TRUE

A  quarter

B  crescent

C  gibbous

D  Full Moon

A  All of these.

B  Not believing everything you hear.

C  Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.

D  Considering the credibility of the sources.

A  a careful analysis of data

B  collecting data

C  expressing the results as a “law” or “principle”

D  comparing results with expectations

E  making an educated guess

A  TRUE

B  FALSE

A  The days and nights would each remain roughly 12 hours long around March 22 and September 22, the equinoxes.

B  The summer would have even longer days and even shorter nights.

C  The Sun would pass essentially overhead (the zenith) around June 22, the summer solstice.

D  There would be a longer combined spring and summer period.

E  Summer days would be even hotter, on average.

A  FALSE

B  TRUE

A  Is caused by the “backward” rotation of Venus about its own axis

B  Is caused by the change in perspective as Venus catches up with, and passes, Earth while both planets orbit the Sun

C  Is caused by the gravitational tug of other planets on Venus

D  Was used by Galileo to explain the complete set of phases of Venus that he observed through his telescope

E  Is caused by the motion of Venus along an epicycle whose center orbits the Sun

A  FALSE

B  TRUE

A  It has seasons so that sunbathers will know when to go to the beach, and skiers will know when to go skiing.

B  The tilt of Earth’s axis of rotation causes the Sun to pass higher in the sky during the day in one hemisphere than in the other, thereby giving more daylight hours and more heating per hour per surface area.

C  The tilt of Earth’s axis of rotation causes one hemisphere of the planet to be substantially closer to the Sun during the day than the other hemisphere. Because it is closer to the Sun, it receives much more solar energy per hour.

D  Over the course of the Year, the tilt of Earth’s axis of rotation varies from 23.5° to 0° in such a way as to bring more heating per hour in the summer than the winter.

E  Earth’s orbit is elliptical. We have summer when we are closer to the Sun and winter when we are farther from the Sun.

A  length

B  volume

C  velocity

D  time

A  FALSE

B  TRUE

A  is the distance from the Earth to the Moon

B  the distance from the center of the Sun to the center of the Earth

C  varies dependant upon the time of year

D  used primary to measure things within the solar system

E  a measurement of distance

A  in daytime only the Sun moves

B  whole constellations move together

C  Earth rotates under the stars

D  the stars rotate about the Earth

A  Light causes many optical illusions.

B  We see distant objects as they were long ago.

C  Light moves instantly from all objects to Earth.

D  Different colors of light travel at different constant speeds.

A  Sun

B  Earth

C  The Moon is not in a shadow.

D  Moon

A  Venus rotated about Earth.

B  Venus revolved about the Sun.

C  Both Venus & Mars had epicycles.

D  Copernicus was wrong.

A  randomly

B  from West to East

C  from East to West

D  in circles

A  the Summer Solstice in the southern hemisphere

B  3 – 4 days before Christmas

C  the longest day of the year in the southern hemisphere

D  the Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere

E  when the southern hemisphere is much closer to the Sun

F  when the north pole is pointed away from Polaris

A  TRUE

B  FALSE

A  FALSE

B  TRUE

A  reproducible

B  believed by 100% of all scientists

C  hypothetical

D  believed by at least 50% of all scientists

E  controversial

A  TRUE

B  FALSE

A  it varies year to year

B  24 hours

C  12 hours

D  0 hours