If you see a full Moon rising, roughly what time is it?
(a) morning
(b) noon
(c) evening
(d) midnight
If the Moon were stopped in its orbit, it could fall into the Earth.
Reason from your understanding that an orbit is a combination of
falling and moving sideways to estimate how long it would take to hit us.
(hint: does its current orbit give you a clue?)
(a) about a minute
(b) about an hour
(c) almost a week
(d) a few months
Which of the following things did Ptolemy believe as
he formed his geocentric model of the solar system?
(a) Objects in motion tend to stay in motion
(b) Gravity pulls earthlike material to the center of the universe
(c) The stars are so incredibly far they should not show parallax
(d) The Earth orbits the Sun
A ball is thrown up into the air, and comes back down. When the ball
was at its maximum height, use A = F/m to say which is true:
(a) the force of gravity and the ball's acceleration are both zero
(b) only the force of gravity is zero at that moment
(c) only the ball's acceleration is zero at that moment
(d) neither the force of gravity nor the ball's acceleration are zero
The seasons on Earth have nothing to do with which of the following:
(a) the distance to the Sun
(b) the length of the day
(c) how high in the sky the Sun gets at noon
(d) the tilt of the Earth's axis
Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun. To stay in orbit, it must
(a) move faster than the Earth does
(b) be more massive than the Earth
(c) balance the force of gravity from the Sun with forces from other planets
(d) be hot enough to avoid falling into the Sun
Which of the following statements is true?
(a) all objects in orbit around the Sun must trace out a circle
(b) all objects in orbit around the Sun must trace out an ellipse
(c) all planets must trace out circles, but other objects can trace out ellipses
(d) all planets must trace out ellipses, other objects can have any orbit
Tycho Brahe pioneered which important aspect of astronomical discovery?
(a) confronting theoretical models with extremely accurate observations
(b) using telescopes to look at detailed features of astronomical objects
(c) deriving mathematical laws that apply universally
(d) studying the attributes of celestial bodies using pure reason
Which of these is true about particles and waves?
(a) light moves like particles, not like waves
(b) light moves like waves, not like particles
(c) the motion of light is a wave, all other particles have trajectories
(d) the motion of all particles can in principle be described using waves
Which of the following observers used a telescope?
(a) Ptolemy
(b) Tycho Brahe
(c) Galileo
(d) All of the above
When thinking scientifically, you should
(a) accept as true everything authorities say
(b) believe whatever fits your ideology
(c) assume everything is a lie so there is no point in trying
(d) follow evidence over opinion and listen to experts not influencers
If we double the temperature of a hot coal, the rate at which it
emits photons goes up by a factor of 8. Use what you know
about how the average energy of each photon depends on temperature
to find the increase in the total rate that energy is emitted
(a) it stays the same
(b) it goes up by a factor of 4
(c) it goes up by a factor of 8
(d) it goes up by a factor of 16
Which of the following was the key significance of the rejection
of the geocentric model?
(a) religious faith is a wrong attitude on any topic
(b) the Sun must be the stationary center of the whole universe
(c) the Earth acts similarly to other astronomical objects
(d) we can never use coordinates centered on the Earth
The process that made stars get hot originally is most similar to
(a) the reason a watermelen smashes when you drop it off a roof
(b) the way a nuclear power plant uses Uranium fission
(c) the way an H bomb uses hydrogen fusion
(d) the way electricity is generated by burning coal
The reason that atoms can only emit and absorb light at certain frequencies is similar
the reason:
(a) planets can only orbit the Sun at certain rates
(b) a plucked guitar string plays a certain note
(c) our eyes can only see a certain range of visible frequencies
(d) our hearts always beat at the same rate
The reason that stars show absorption lines is
(a) light cannot be created at certain special frequencies
(b) atoms at its surface are seen against a brighter background
(c) it is the way thermal radiation always works
(d) the planets block some of the light
Which of the following is true about most waves?
(a) the source controls the frequency not the speed
(b) the source controls the speed not the frequency
(c) their speed is proportional to their frequency
(d) their wavelength is longer for higher frequency
As gravity tries to compress stars, what prevents it from succeeding?
(a) mostly the pull from the planets
(b) mostly the fact that light is escaping
(c) mostly radiation pressure
(d) mostly gas pressure
Which of these best helps us understand what the Sun is made of?
(a) the lines its atmosphere absorbs
(b) the brightest colors in the rainbow
(c) the total mass of the Sun
(d) the way it moves in the sky
Which of the following succeeded in explaining Kepler's laws?
(a) Galileo
(b) Newton
(c) Tycho
(d) Ptolemy