Download TEST1-WHITE Modern scientific theories are NOT: Testable

TEST1-WHITE
1. Modern scientific theories are NOT:
a. Testable
b. Continuously tested
c. Simple
d. Perfect
e. Elegant
2. How long is the precession cycle?
a. 1 day
b. 29.5 days
c. 365.24 days
d. 18 years, 11.3 days
e. 26,000 years
3. What line in the sky is created by our revolution around the Sun?
a. Equator
b. Ecliptic
c. Prime Meridian
d. Analemma
e. Galactic Plane
4. What is the range of values for declination?
a. +90 to -90 degrees
b. +180 to -180 degrees
c. +23.5 to -23.5 degrees
d. 0 to 24 hours
e. Correct answer is not given
5. A solar eclipse can only happen during a:
a. New moon
b. Solstice
c. First quarter moon
d. Full moon
e. Perihelion passage of the Sun
6. A lunar eclipse can only happen during a:
a. New moon
b. Equinox
c. Full moon
d. Perigee
e. Aphelion
7. Which of the following describes parallax?
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a. It is best measured over exactly one year intervals
b. It is inversely proportional to the distance to the star
c. It was first observed by Galileo with his new telescope
d. It is only applicable to objects within the solar system
e. It is more accurate as the distances to objects become greater
8. If, the population of New Mexico was 1,800,000 in 2009 and the area of New Mexico is
120,000 square miles, the number of people per square mile in Powers of Ten notation
is approximately:
a. 1.2 x 102
b. 1.8 x 103
c. 1.5 x 103
d. 1.5 x 102
e. 1.5 x 101
9. The Ptolemaic model probably persisted for all these reasons EXCEPT:
a. It had the authority of Aristotle behind it
b. It was consistent with Church doctrines
c. It used perfect circles, which appealed to many
d. It accounted well for Galileo’s observations of the phases of Venus
e. It explained why stellar parallaxes were not observed by the Greeks
10. Which was a contribution to astronomy made by Copernicus?
a. The planets move around the Sun in elliptical orbits
b. His theory of gravity accounted for the variable speeds of the planets
c. He laid out the outline of the solar system with the Sun at the center
d. He discovered that the Sun was not at the center of the Milky Way
e. His telescope revealed the four moons of Jupiter, a model solar system
11. Which of the following is a contribution to astronomy made by Galileo?
a. The astronomical telescope can show us far more detail than the eye
b. Jupiter has four moons orbiting it
c. The Moon has craters, mountains, valleys, and dark flat areas on its surface
d. Venus appears almost fully lit when it lies on the far side of the Sun
e. All of the above are his discoveries
12. According to Kepler’s Second Law, planets and other objects orbiting the Sun move
fastest when they are ___________:
a. Traveling toward the Sun
b. Traveling away from the Sun
c. Farthest from the Sun
d. Nearest to the Sun
e. Crossing the Earth’s orbit at 1 AU
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13. Which concept or concepts were NOT a part of Kepler’s Laws of Planetary Motion?
a. All planetary orbits are ellipses
b. The square of the planet’s orbital period is equal to the cube of its average distance
c. A planet must move fastest in its obit when far from the Sun
d. Epicycles are needed to explain the varying brightnesses of the planets
e. Both c. and d.
14. What contribution of astronomy was made by Tycho Brahe?
a. The planets orbits around the Sun are ellipses, not circles
b. The Earth is not the center of the Universe
c. His observations of Mars, made with great accuracy, led to the result that circular
orbits could not work
d. His telescope revealed the moons of Jupiter before Galileo noted them
e. Retrograde motion must be explained by epicycles larger than those of Ptolemy
15. Today we rely largely on what technique to precisely determine the astronomical unit
(AU)?
a. Transits of Venus across the Sun
b. Radar echo timing
c. Measurements of stellar parallax
d. Timing the eclipses of it moons by Jupiter’s shadow
e. Precise measurements of the length of the year with atomic clocks
16. Kepler’s First Law worked, where Copernicus original heliocentric model failed,
because Kepler described the orbits as:
a. Complex, with epicycles to account for retrograde motion
b. Much larger than Copernicus had envisioned
c. Elliptical not circular
d. Having a semimajor axis of less than 1 AU
e. Around the Sun, not the Earth
17. According to Newton’s Second Law, the greater the force exerted on an object, the
greater the object’s __________:
a. Mass
b. Acceleration
c. Distance
d. Velocity
e. Distance and velocity
18. The Law of Universal Gravitation was developed by:
a. Kepler
b. Galileo
c. Newton
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d. Copernicus
e. Einstein
19. The force of gravity between two objects:
a. Increases with the masses of the objects, but decreases proportional to the distance
between them
b. Increases with the masses of the objects, but decreases with the square of the
distance between them
c. Increases with the square of their masses, but decreases with the cube of their
periods of orbit around the Sun
d. Depends on the density, not the mass of the objects
e. Depends on the temperature, density, and size of the objects
20. Using Newton’s Laws of Motion and Gravity, we can determine the mass of the Sun
provided we know:
a. Its density as found by spectroscopy
b. Its temperature as found by Wien’s Law
c. The size of the AU, the gravitational constant G, and the length of the year
d. The Earth’s mass and circumference
e. The exact timings of the transits of Venus and its diameter
21. The distance between successive wave crests defines the ________ of a wave:
a. Wavelength
b. Frequency
c. Period
d. Amplitude
e. Energy
22. Which of these forms of EM radiation is typical of sources having temperatures of
millions of degrees?
a. Visible light
b. X rays
c. Ultraviolet
d. Infrared
e. Radio
23. Of all EM waves, the ones carrying the least energy per photon are:
a. Gamma rays
b. Ultraviolet rays
c. Visible light
d. Microwaves
e. Radio waves
24. The visible color of light that has the shortest wavelength is:
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a. Orange
b. Green
c. Violet
d. Red
e. Blue
25. The two forms of EM radiation that penetrate the atmosphere best are:
a. X rays and gamma rays
b. Ultraviolet and visible light
c. Visible and infrared light
d. Visible light and radio waves
e. Infrared light and microwaves
26. Which of the following statements about the Kelvin temperature scale is true?
a. Room temperature is about 300 K
b. Water freezes at 459 K
c. Water boils at 273 K
d. Degrees Celsius = degrees Kelvin + 273
e. Absolute zero is -273 K
27. According to Kirchoff’s Laws:
a. A continuous spectrum is produced by a luminous solid, liquid, or a sufficiently
dense gas
b. An emission spectrum is produced by a low-density gas
c. An absorption spectrum is produced when a hot, dense source shines through a
cool, thin gas
d. All of the above
e. Only a. and b.
28. Radiation from a black body peaks at a frequency or wavelength that depends directly
on its:
a. Radius
b. Mass
c. Magnetic field
d. Temperature
e. Direction of motion
29. Spectral lines are often referred to as the star’s “fingerprints” because:
a. Fingerprints also consist of individual lines that make a pattern
b. Both are unique to their source
c. Both can be easily categorized
d. Both are characteristic of the individual that produced them
e. All of these are correct
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30. If a light source is approaching you, you will observe:
a. An apparent red shift of its spectral lines
b. That its light has become much bluer in color
c. That all of its spectral lines have become shorter in wavelength
d. That the amplitude of its waves has increased
e. That the speed of its photons has increased
31. Star A and star B have the same temperature, but star B is more luminous that star A.
What can you infer about these two stars?
a. Nothing can be inferred from the information given
b. Star B must be redder
c. Star A must be redder
d. Star B must be bigger
e. Star A must be bigger
32. What is the primary purpose of an astronomical telescope?
a. To access wavelengths that we cannot see visually
b. To separate light into its component colors
c. To magnify and make distant objects appear closer
d. To collect a lot of light and bring it to a focus
e. To measure the intensity of light very accurately
33. The tendency of a wave to bend as it passes from one transparent medium to another
is called:
a. Reflection
b. Dispersion
c. Refraction
d. Diffraction
e. Interference
34. A telescope with a 60 mm diameter objective lens collects how many times as much
light as does your eye with an effective diameter of 6 mm?
a. 5 times
b. 10 times
c. 25 times
d. 100 times
e. 250 times
35. What is the resolving power of a telescope?
a. The ability to make distant objects appear closer
b. The ability to collect a lot of light
c. The ability to detect very faint objects
d. The ability to distinguish adjacent objects in the sky
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e. The ability to separate light into its component colors
36. What is “seeing”?
a. A measure of the quality of the telescope’s optics
b. A measure of the transparency of the scope’s objective lens
c. A measure of the sharpness of vision of the astronomer’s eyes
d. A measure of the image quality due to air stability
e. A measure of atmospheric clarity and the absence of clouds
37. In what part of the EM spectrum have astronomers been unable to get any information
about celestial objects?
a. Gamma rays
b. X rays
c. Ultraviolet
d. Microwaves
e. We can now obtain information in all spectral bands
38. The Chandra X-ray telescope must use:
a. A lens of fluorite
b. Grazing incidence optics to focus the short wavelengths
c. A Newtonian reflecting design to avoid chromatic aberration
d. X-ray film instead of CCDs for imaging
e. A special corrector plate of avoid spherical aberration
39. Radio dishes are large in order to:
a. Attract funding from NASA and NSF
b. Give greater magnification
c. Increase their angular resolution and collect the very weak radio photons
d. Increase the range of waves they can collect
e. Detect shorter wavelengths than optical telescopes for superior resolution
40. The best way to study young stars hidden behind interstellar dust clouds would be to
use:
a. Ultraviolet light
b. X rays
c. Infrared light
d. Blue light
e. None of the above
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