Download Quiz # 1 - Oglethorpe University

Introductory Astronomy - Quiz # 1 - Fall 2006
Multiple Choice
Identify the letter of the choice that best completes the statement or answers the question.
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1. The point in the sky directly above your head at any given time is called the
a. nadir
b. zenith
c. celestial pole
d. horizon point
e. bald spot
2. When it comes to our place in the solar system today, which model do we accept?
a. geocentric
b. heliocentric
c. Ptolemaic
d. Aritotelean
e. self-centered
3. Someone who observes the sky every clear night in Boston for many years will NEVER get to see:
a. the south circumpolar zone
b. the north celestial pole
c. the observer's zenith point
d. the north circumpolar zone
e. the Big Dipper
4. Every celestial object appears to go around the Earth once a day. In addition to this motion, which celestial
object has the fastest apparent motion in the sky?
a. Mars
b. the Sun
c. Venus
d. the Moon
e. the Big Dipper
5. The strip of the sky through which the Sun, the Moon, and the bright planets appear to move in the course of a
year is called:
a. the zodiac
b. the celestial equator
c. the circumpolar zone
d. the horizon
e. the asteroid belt
6. When a planet temporarily moves westward in the sky over the course of several weeks or months (instead of
eastward, as it typically does), we call it:
a. precession
b. ecliptic motion
c. retrograde motion
d. circumpolar motion
e. rude
7. In Ptolemy's system the planets orbit the Earth and not the Sun. How did the system explain the retrograde
motion of planets like Jupiter?
a. the planets were not moving along the ecliptic but all over the celestial sphere
b. the planets moved in very elongated ellipses, and their speed in orbit changed radically
over the course of a year
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c. the Sun moved among the planets, and pulled them out of their circular orbits
d. the planets moved on a small circle whose center in turn circled a point near the Earth
e. you can't fool me, Ptolemy's system did not include ANY explanation of retrograde
motion
We now know that the orbit of a stable planet around a star like the Sun is always in the shape of:
a. a circle
b. a parabola
c. a straight line
d. an ellipse
e. none of the above
According to Kepler's third law, there is a relationship between the time a planet takes to revolve around the
Sun and its
a. size
b. period of rotation
c. distance from the Sun
d. eccentricity
e. astrological sign
Newton showed that to change the direction in which an object is moving, one needs to apply:
a. a force
b. an orbit
c. an inertia
d. a perigee
e. a bribe
Which of the following statements about the force of gravity is FALSE?
a. it is a universal force, which acts everywhere in space
b. its strength decreases as the square of the distance
c. its strength is inversely proportional to the mass: the more mass, the less gravity
d. the force never becomes zero
e. it causes the paths of the planets to be ellipses and not straight lines
Introductory Astronomy - Quiz # 1 - Fall 2006
Answer Section
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
ANS:
ANS:
ANS:
ANS:
ANS:
ANS:
ANS:
ANS:
ANS:
ANS:
ANS:
B
B
A
D
A
C
D
D
C
A
C