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1st Semester Test Study Guide
Directions: Answer the following questions on a separate piece of paper.
Chapter 1: The Nature of Earth Science
1. What are the four general areas of science?
2. What are the four areas of Earth Science?
3. Describe what each of the four areas of Earth Science study.
4. List the steps of the scientific method.
5. What is a hypothesis?
6. What is a dependent variable? What is an independent variable?
7. What is a control in an experiment used for?
8. What are the SI units of measurement for:
a. mass
9. Define each:
b. volume of a solid
a. mass
c. volume of a liquid
d. length
b. volume
10. Fill in the blank(s) for each of the following:
a. 3,400ml = ___L
c. 23ml = ___cm3
b. 8.2km = 820 ____
d. 56cm = ____mm
11. Define “scientific theory”.
Earth, Sun, Moon
1. What causes seasons to occur on Earth?
2. When is Earth closest to the sun? Farthest?
3. How are seasons in the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere related?
4. When is the first day of fall in the Northern Hemisphere? Winter? Spring? Summer?
5. What causes a solar eclipse? Lunar eclipse?
6. What causes phases of the moon? What do each of the phases of the moon look like?
7. What causes night and day?
8. What causes the tides?
9. Draw a diagram of a neap and a spring tide.
10. Define rotation. Define revolution.
11. What happens to the number of daylight hours as you get closer and closer to the summer solstice?
Chapters 20+21: Solar System
1. Who proposed the Earth centered model of the solar system? Sun Centered? Who proved the sun centered
model was correct? How did he prove it?
2. Briefly describe the major astronomical discoveries of Brahe, Newton, Kepler and Hubble.
3. Name the known planets in our solar system in order outward from the sun. Include planets and dwarf planets.
Indicate the positions of the asteroid belt, Kuiper Belt, and the Oort Cloud.
4. Define each:
a. comet
b. asteroid
c. meteoroid
d. meteor
e. meteorite
5. Which planet has the largest volcano? Which has the Great Red Spot? Which has the Great Dark Spot (or
could have it...)? Which planet looks most like Earth’s moon? Which is the hottest planet? Which planet is on it’s
side? Which planets have retrograde rotation? What is true about Mars’ surface? What is true about Venus’
atmosphere? Which planets have rocky surfaces? Which planets are gas giants? What gases are they mostly made
of?
6. How did our solar system originate? Explain the theory.
7. What are Kepler’s 3 laws of planetary motion?
Chapter 19: Stars, Galaxies and the Universe
1. What is a constellation?
2. What type of star is our sun?
3. What is the Hertzsrpung-Russel diagram? Where does our sun lie on the diagram?
4. Draw the life cycle time line of a star. Start with a nebula. Remember, stars do different things based on
their initial sizes...
5. What process occurs in a star to produce energy?
6. What is a galaxy? What are the three main types? Give characteristics for each type.
7. Briefly describe the Big Bang Theory and the evidence used to support it.
8. What is a black hole? Supernova? Nebula?
9. Which type of stars are the hottest? Most common? Yellow? Red? Live the longest? Brightest?
10. Define parallax. How is it used in astronomy?
11. Draw a sketch of the following constellations:
d.Cassiopeia e. Cepheus
f. Draco
a. Orion
b. Ursa Major
c. Ursa Minor
g. Cygnus
1st Semester Test Study Guide
Directions: Answer the following questions on a separate piece of paper.
Chapter 1: The Nature of Earth Science
1. What are the four general areas of science?
Earth science, Biology, Chemistry, Physics
2. What are the four areas of Earth Science?
Geology, Meteorology, Astronomy, Oceanography
3. Describe what each of the four areas of Earth Science study.
Geology: rocks, minerals, earthquakes, mountains, volcanoes,
landslides
Meteorology: tornadoes, weather, hurricanes, rain, hail,
snowstorms, rainbows
Astronomy: stars, planets, space exploration, telescopes
Oceanography: topography of the ocean floor, underwater
volcanoes, tsunamis
4. List the steps of the scientific method.
a. identify the problem b. make a hypothesis
hypothesis d. analyze your results
c. test your
e. state a conclusion
f. communicate results
5. What is a hypothesis?
An educated guess about a problem that can be tested.
6. What is a dependent variable? What is an independent variable?
Dependent variable: The variable that is changed because of something
done in an experiment.
Independent variable: The variable that the scientist changes because
of something he/she wants to test.
7. What is a control in an experiment used for?
control: a standard for comparison during an experiment...is not
changed.
A control is used to compare your experimental results to in
order to confirm that any observed changes were due to your
experiment, and not due to any outside influences.
8. What are the SI units of measurement for:
a. mass: Kilogram
c. volume of a liquid: Liters
b. volume of a solid: cubic meters
d. length: Meter
9. Define each:
a. mass: The amount of matter in an object.
b. volume: The amount of space an object occupies.
10. Fill in the blank(s) for each of the following:
a. 3,400ml = ___L
3.4 Liters
b. 8.2km = 820 ____ Decameters
c. 23ml = ___c m3
23 cm3
d. 56cm = ____mm
560 mm
11. Define “scientific theory”.
theory: an explanation backed by results from repeated tests and
experiments.
Earth, Sun, Moon
1. What causes seasons to occur on Earth?
Seasons are caused by the tilt of the Earth's axis and the
revolution of the Earth around the sun.
2. When is Earth closest to the sun? Farthest?
Earth is closest to the sun in January (around 91 million miles)
and farthest from the sun in July (around 94 million miles).
3. How are seasons in the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere related?
The seasons occur opposite each other. Summer in the northern
hemisphere means winter in the southern hemisphere. Fall in the
northern hemisphere means spring in the southern hemisphere.
4. When is the first day of fall in the Northern Hemisphere? Winter? Spring? Summer?
Fall equinox: Sept. 21, Winter solstice: Dec. 21, Spring
equinox: March 21, Summer solstice: June 21.
5. What causes a solar eclipse? Lunar eclipse?
A solar eclipse is caused when the moon's orbit places it right
between the Earth and the sun. The moon's small shadow is cast
upon a small area of the Earth causing the eclipse. People in
the moon's umbra (really dark part of the shadow) see a total
solar eclipse, people in the penumbra (the lighter portion of
the shadow) would see a partial solar eclipse. A lunar eclipse
occurs when the moon's orbit places the moon directly behind the
Earth. The moon falls into the Earth's shadow. When the moon
falls into the Earth's umbra, we would see a total lunar
eclipse. When the moon is in the Earth's penumbra we see a
partial lunar eclipse. It is much more likely to see a lunar
eclipse than it is to see a solar eclipse.
6. What causes phases of the moon?
The phases of the moon are caused by the moon's revolution
around the Earth.
What do each of the phases of the moon look like?
New Moon
Waxing Crescent
1st Quarter
Waxing Gibbous
Full Moon
Waning Gibbous
3rd Quarter
Waning Crescent
7. What causes night and day?
The rotation of the Earth causes night and day.
8. What causes the tides?
The relative positions of the Sun, Earth and moon. The moon’s gravity
has the major influence on Earth’s tides because it is so close to our
planet. The Sun’s effects on tides are muted due to it’s distance, but
are observed during spring and neap tides.
9. Draw a diagram of a neap and a spring tide.
This is a neap tide.
Notice how the sun's
and moon's gravities
work against each other
to create lower high
tides and higher low
tides than when there
is a spring tide.
This is a spring
tide. Notice how the
sun's and moon's
gravities work
together to create
very high high tides
and very low low
tides.
10. Define rotation. Define revolution.
Rotation: The period of time it takes to complete one full spin around
the axis. On Earth, this period of time is referred to as 1 day, which
lasts 23 hrs and 56 mins, or about 24 hours.
Revolution: The period of time it takes to complete one full circle
around the sun. For Earth, this period time is referred to as 1 year,
which lasts 365.25 days.
11. What happens to the number of daylight hours as you get closer and closer to the summer solstice?
As time approaches the summer solstice, the number of daylight hours
increases.
Chapters 20+21: Solar System
1. Who proposed the Earth centered model of the solar system? Sun Centered? Who proved the sun centered
model was correct? How did he prove it?
Ptolomy believed in the Earth centered system. Since his views
were pretty much the same as everyone else's, he had no
opposition to his statements.
The sun centered model was first proposed by Nicholas
Copernicus. He was contradicting what most people believed. Very
few people, if any, supported his idea.
Galileo proved the sun centered model was correct by using a
homemade telescope. He saw through the telescope that Venus went
through phases (much like the moon). The only way that Venus
could have phases such as these was if it was traveling around
the sun. Galileo stated that if Venus went around the sun, then
so do the other planets in the solar system. Galileo also
observed the sunspots on the sun. He noted that they appeared to
revolve around the surface of the sun, and if the sun rotated,
then it is possible that the Earth rotated, too and would make
everything else look like it was going around the Earth. He also
saw the moons of Jupiter through his telescope. He noted that
the 4 moons he could see (Europa, Callisto, Ganymede and Io)
continued to "stay" with Jupiter even though Jupiter moved
through space. Therefore, he thought, that means that Earth
could move through space and it's moon would "follow" it as the
planet moved.
2. Briefly describe the major astronomical discoveries of Brahe, Newton, Kepler and Hubble.
Brahe: Made precise measurements of the heavens, even though some of
his conclusions were later proven to be incorrect.
Newton: Discovered laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation
(the larger an object is and the closer it is to another object, the
greater the graviational attraction).
Kepler: Determined how planets orbit the sun.
Hubble: Observed that there are galaxies outside of our own and that
most other galaxies are moving away from ours.
3. Name the known planets in our solar system in order outward from the sun. Include planets and dwarf
planets. Indicate the positions of the asteroid belt, Kuiper Belt, and the Oort Cloud.
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres (dwarf planet in the asteroid
belt), Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Kuiper Belt, Pluto, Eris in
the Oort Cloud.
4. Define each:
a
Comet: “hairy star”, remnant of the formation of the solar system
that orbits the sun and develops a tail as it nears the sun.
b. Asteroid: another remnant of the formation of the solar system.
Most orbit the sun between Mars and Jupiter. Also can be referred to
planetoids (small planets).
c. Meteoroid: Chunks of space rock broken from asteroids or comets.
d. Meteor: Meteoroids that have entered the atmosphere.
e. Meteorite: Meteors that have landed on the surface of a planet or
moon.
5. Which planet has the largest volcano? Mars
Which has the Great Red Spot?
Dusty, solid.
Jupiter
What is true about Venus’
Which has the Great Dark Spot
atmosphere?
(or could have it...)?
Thick, full of carbon dioxide.
Neptune
Which planets have rocky
Which planet looks most like
surfaces? The inner planets
Earth’s moon?
(Mecury, Venus, Earth, Mars) +
Mercury
dwarf planets (Ceres, Pluto,
Which is the hottest planet?
Eris)
Venus
Which planets are gas giants?
Which planet is on it’s side?
Most outer planets (Jupiter,
Uranus
Saturn, Uranus, Neptune)
Which planets have retrograde
What gases are they mostly
rotation?
Venus and Uranus
made of?
Mostly hydrogen (H) and helium
(He).
What is true about Mars’
surface? Red due to iron
oxide, past presence of water?
6. How did our solar system originate? Explain the theory.
A nebula in space from old O or B class star that went supernova, was
hit by shock wave of other distant star going supernova. The nebula
started spinning, contracting, and heating up. When the temperature
and pressure were at a certain high level, fusion began at the center.
When fusion began in the center, our sun, a main sequence star
(according to the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram) was formed. Not all of
the gas and dust from the nebula went into forming the sun. Some of it
went into forming the planets, their moons and the other objects in
the solar system that orbit the sun (like comets, meteoroids and
asteroids). The evidence used to support this theory includes the
presence of iron throughout the solar system Iron is made only in the
cores of very large stars, like class O or B. There is iron in the sun
and on the planets in the solar system. The only way it could have
gotten there is if it was in the nebula that formed the solar system.
7. What are Kepler’s 3 laws of planetary motion?
Law 1: The orbits of the planets are ellipses, with the Sun at
one focus of the ellipse.
Law 2: The line joining the planet to the Sun sweeps out equal
areas in equal times as the planet travels around the ellipse
(the planet moves faster when it is nearer the Sun).
Law 3: The ratio of the squares of the revolutionary periods for
two planets is equal to the ratio of the cubes of their
semimajor axes. (The farther a planet’s orbit travels from the
sun, the longer it’s year is.)
Chapter 19: Stars, Galaxies and the Universe
12. What is a constellation?
A pattern of stars in the sky that may make a picture.
13. What type of star is our sun?
G class star.
14. What is the Hertzsrpung-Russel diagram? Where does our sun lie on the diagram?
A chart that graphs a star's temperature vs.
brightness. Our sun is near the middle of temperature
and brightness on the main sequence.
15. Draw the life cycle time line of a star. Start with a nebula. Remember, stars do different things based on
their initial sizes...
Stars like our sun and smaller: nebula, protostar, main sequence
star, giant, white dwarf, black dwarf.
Stars bigger than our sun: nebula, protostar, main sequence star,
supergiant, supernova, (100 times more massive turn into black holes, 10
times more massive turn into neutron stars) + nebula
16. What process occurs in a star to produce energy?
Nuclear fusion
17. What is a galaxy? What are the three main types? Give characteristics for each type.
A galaxy is a group of stars, gas and dust held together by gravity.
There are 3 main types: spiral, elliptical, and irregular. Spiral
galaxies can be normal or barred. They contain lots of gas and dust and
relatively young stars. Elliptical galaxies are those that are shaped
like an oval, a circle or something in between (in fact, they are
commonly referred to as being shaped like a football). They don't
contain much gas or dust and generally have older stars (those that are
nearing the end of their life cycles). Irregular galaxies don't have a
particular shape. They contain lots of gas and dust and a mixture of old
and new stars.
18. Briefly describe the Big Bang Theory and the evidence used to support it.
Scientists hypothesize that everything in the universe existed in
one infinitely small area. Something happened (no one knows for
sure what....) to cause it to explode. This caused all the matter
to spread outward. The first thing to form were gases. They were
very hot at first, but began to cool down as the distance between
all the gas molecules increased due to the spreading. As they
cooled, they formed "clumps" of gas and dust, each swirling
around. These clumps became the galaxies. Within each galaxy,
stars and the planets and moons around them are thought to have
formed.
The evidence scientists have gathered to support this hypothesis
includes the observed Doppler Shift of all the galaxies outside the
local group. When scientists analyze the light coming from these
galaxies with a spectroscope, the light is shifted from where it
normally would be to the red end of the electromagnetic spectrum. This
is called a red shift and signifies longer wavelengths. This means the
galaxies are moving away from the observer. Because all of the galaxies
outside the local group are seen to have this red shift, it is thought
that all of the galaxies must be moving away from each other (spreading
out....).
19. What is a black hole? Supernova? Nebula?
Black Hole: The remnant of a supergiant star after the core has
collapsed and the star has thrown off it’s outer layers.
Supernova: The violent collapse of the core of a supergiant star. Sort
of like an explosion.
Nebula: Cloud of gas and dust in space, often either the remnant of a
supernova explosion or the beginning of a new star.
20. Which type of stars are the hottest? Most common? Yellow? Red? Live the longest? Brightest?
Hottest: O class (blue white
Live the longest: M class
stars)
Brightest: O class
Most common: M class (red
stars)
Yellow: G class (like our sun)
21. Define parallax. How is it used in astronomy?
Parallax is the apparent shift of an object when viewed from 2
different angles. In astronmy, scientists can use this effect to
calculate the distance to some stars. Usually, this process is only
useable for relatively close stars, since the farther an object is
from the observer, the less parallax it has. For stars much more
distant, other methods must be used to determine the distance to the
star.
11. Draw a sketch of the following constellations:
A. Orion:
This is Orion, the hunter. The most noticeable
part of this constellation is the 3 stars that
make Orion's belt. They are really easy to see.
The star that makes the shoulder that is holding
Orion's club is a red supergiant star called
Betelgeuse and the star that makes the knee under
Orion's shield is a class B star called Rigel. If
you look on the left side of Orion's belt with a telescope, you may
see the Orion nebula.
B. Ursa Major:
C. Ursa Minor:
This is Ursa Minor, or the Little Dipper.
Polaris, the current north star is located in
the upper middle of the picture. Polaris does
not move very much throughout the night. That is one of the reasons
why it is often used to find north.
D. Cassiopeia:
This "W" shaped constellation is called
Cassiopeia. The top of the "W" always points
towards Polaris. The fuzzy cloud you might see
passing through Cassiopeia is a view of the
Milky Way galaxy.
E. Cepheus:
F. Draco:
Here is a drawing of Draco, the dragon. Draco winds
between Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. In a way, its
like the dragon is protecting the north star.
G. Cygnus:
This Cygnus, the swan. It kind of looks like a
swan if you imagine a "t" shape. The upper
portion of the "t" is the swan's tail, the wings
are the part that goes across and the head is the
bottom of the "t". At the tip of the swan's tail
is a bright star called Deneb. It is