Download Earth Science – Quiz 2

Earth Science – Quiz 3
Spring 2012
Total points = 122 points
Choose the best multiple choice answer. It is not necessary to download the quiz. Put your
answers on your scantron (882-E) and turn the quiz in on the day of exam-3 (May 2, 2012). If you
wish to have the quiz graded prior to the exam, Monday (April 30th) and Tuesday (May 1st ) during
office hours is available.
1. Air may best be described as ________.
A) an element B) a compound C) a mixture
D) none of these
2. Which one of the following is the most abundant gas in the atmosphere?
A) oxygen
B) argon
C) carbon dioxide
D) nitrogen
3. Which one of the gases listed below is more important meteorologically (that is, is more important in weather
processes) than the others?
A) oxygen
B) argon C) carbon dioxide D) nitrogen
4. On the AVERAGE, for every 1 km increase in altitude in the troposphere, the air temperature ________.
A) drops about 6.5˚C
B) rises about 6.5˚C
C) remains constant
D) rises only during the day
5. Fifty percent of the gases making up the atmosphere are found below ________.
A) 10 miles (16.2 km)
B) 6 ½ miles (10.4 km)
C) 3 ½ miles (5.6 km)
D) 8 miles (12.8 km)
6. The triatomic form of oxygen (O3) is known as ________.
A) argon B) ozone
C) chlorofluorocarbon
D) molecular oxygen
7. Ozone filters out most of the ________ radiation in sunlight.
A) infrared
B) gamma
C) ultraviolet
D) microwave
8. Ozone is concentrated in the ________.
A) troposphere B) mesosphere
C) stratosphere D) ionosphere
9. The lowest layer of the atmosphere is the ________.
A) troposphere B) mesosphere
C) stratosphere D) ionosphere
10. The wavelengths of radiation emitted by Earth are ________.
A) longer than those emitted by the Sun
B) shorter than those emitted by the Sun
C) about the same as those emitted by the Sun
D) none of these
11. The longest wavelengths on the electromagnetic spectrum are ________.
A) gamma
B) ultraviolet
C) radio D) infrared
12. The storage of heat in the lower layer of the atmosphere produced by certain heat absorbing gases is called the
________.
A) adiabatic effect
B) greenhouse effect
C) grey-body effect
D) photon effect
13. Which one of the following statements is true about the equinoxes?
A) They occur in June and December.
B) The Sun's vertical rays are striking either the Tropic of Cancer or the Tropic of Capricorn.
C) Days and nights are equal in length everywhere.
D) The length of daylight at the Arctic and Antarctic Circles is 24 hours.
14. On this date the length of daylight gets progressively longer going south from the equator.
A) June 21
B) March 21
C) September 21 D) December 21
15. The spring equinox in the Northern Hemisphere occurs on ________.
A) June 21
B) March 21
C) September 21 D) December 21
16. The 90˚ angle solar rays are striking the Tropic of Cancer on ________.
A) June 21
B) March 21
C) September 21 D) December 21
17. The 90˚ angle solar rays are striking the Tropic of Capricorn on ________.
A) June 21
B) March 21
C) September 21 D) December 21
18. The fall equinox in the Southern Hemisphere occurs on this date.
A) June 21
B) March 21
C) September 21 D) December 21
19. Earth receives energy from the Sun in this way.
A) conduction
B) convection
C) radiation
20. The amount of water vapor in the air (by volume) usually does not exceed ________.
A) 50%
B) 28%
C) 14%
D) 4%
21. We are likely to have our highest relative humidity ________.
A) during midafternoon B) around midnight
C) about sunrise
D) at noon
22. The dew point is the temperature at which ________.
A) water in the liquid state changes to vapor
B) hailstones are formed
C) water vapor condenses to a liquid
D) cumulus clouds change to cumulonimbus clouds
23. The most important process of cloud formation in the atmosphere is ________.
A) cooling by compression of air
B) cooling by release of latent heat of vaporization
C) cooling by expansion of air
D) radiation cooling
24. A parcel of air has a temperature of 0°C as it crosses a mountain range at 3000 meters. If it descends, what will its
temperature be when it reaches sea level?
A) 15°C
B) 30°C
C) 0°C
D) 40°C
25. Deserts such as the Great Basin, Gobi, and Takla Makan are examples of ________.
A) chinook deserts
B) subtropical deserts
C) rainshadow deserts
D) monsoon deserts
26. The change of state from a gas to a liquid is called ________.
A) evaporation B) sublimation
C) condensation
D) melting
Please answer the following questions using the data below:
H2O vapor content: 14 grams
H2O vapor capacity: 20 grams at 25 degrees Celsius
14 grams at 20°C
10 grams at 15°C
27. What is the relative humidity for the above conditions at 25°C?
A) 30%
B) 100%
C) 15%
D) 70%
28. What is the dew point for the conditions listed above?
A) 25°C
B) 20°C
C) 15°C
D) colder than 15°C
29. One of the discoveries which led to the modern view of the solar system was that the orbits of the planets are
________.
A) circles
B) ellipses
C) hyperbolas
D) parabolas
30. Galileo observed several features using the telescope. Which one of the following did he NOT discover?
A) sunspots
B) phases of Venus
C) Jupiter's four largest moons
D) the two moons of Mars
31. The first modern astronomer to propose a Sun-centered universe was ________.
A) Sir Isaac Newton
B) Galileo
C) Tycho Brahe D) Nicolaus Copernicus
32. This scientist determined the nature of the forces that kept the planets in their orbits.
A) Sir Isaac Newton
B) Galileo
C) Tycho Brahe D) Nicolaus Copernicus
33. The apparent westward "drift" of the planets compared to the background stars is called ________.
A) Ptolemaic motion
B) occultation
C) precession D) retrograde motion
34. The true shape of the planetary orbits was discovered by ________.
A) Sir Isaac Newton
B) Galileo
C) Tycho Brahe D) Nicolaus Copernicus
E) Johannes Kepler
35. Which of these men formulated the Law of Universal Gravitation?
A) Sir Isaac Newton
B) Galileo
C) Tycho Brahe D) Nicolaus Copernicus
E) Johannes Kepler
36. The Earth-centered system of the universe that was accepted for nearly seventeen centuries was presented in a
treatise called the Almagest that was written by ________.
A) Aristotle
B) Ptolemy
C) Aristarchus D) Eratosthenes
E) Hipparchus
37. The length of daylight on the Moon is about ________.
A) 24 hours
B) 48 hours
C) two weeks
D) one month
E) one year
38. Compared to Earth's atmosphere, the atmosphere of Mars has surface pressures that are ________.
A) 3 times those on Earth; major gases are water vapor and carbon dioxide
B) 0.1 times those on Earth; major gases are water vapor and carbon dioxide
C) one-half those on Earth; main gases are methane and nitrogen
D) 1.5 times those on Earth; main gases are methane and nitrogen
39. Which one of the following statements is believed to be true of comets?
A) They have highly elliptical orbits around the Sun.
B) They are composed mostly of dense rock particles.
C) They may gain slightly in mass with each orbit around the Sun.
D) Their bright, glowing appearance in the night sky is due to frictional heating in Earth's
40. ________ has the great, dark spot on its surface.
A) Mars B) Jupiter
C) Venus
D) Uranus
41. How did the lunar maria most likely originate?
A) huge impact basins that were nearly filled with basaltic lava flows
B) huge impact craters filled with frozen carbon dioxide and dark-colored silt and dust
C) massive, basaltic comets melted when they hit the lunar surface
D) the solar wind eroded very wide, shallow basins that filled with lunar dust
42. Which one of the following is not found on Mars?
A) polar ice caps B) H2O-rich atmosphere C) sand dunes
D) extinct volcanoes
43. The largest known volcano in the solar system is ________.
A) Mauna Loa, Hawaii, on Earth
B) Vulcan on Venus
C) Solfatara on Jupiter
D) Olympus Mons on Mars
44. ________ is the principal gas in the Venusian atmosphere and also a minor component of the atmospheres of Earth
and Mars.
A) Ozone
B) Nitrogen
C) Carbon dioxide
D) Methane
45. ________ are small, extraterrestrial particles that glow brightly and burn up as they travel through Earth's
atmosphere.
A) Asteroids
B) Microcomets C) Mesocoronas D) Meteoroids
46. Vast, circular to elliptical dark-colored, smooth areas of the Moon are known as ________.
A) Olympian fields
B) Copernican steppes C) lunar maria
D) lunar lava flats
47. Most of the Moon's craters were produced by ________.
A) the impact of debris (meteoroids)
B) volcanic eruptions
C) faulting
D) radial implosions
48. The high surface temperatures of this planet have been attributed to the greenhouse effect.
A) Venus
B) Uranus
C) Mars D) Mercury
49. One of the most common units used to express stellar distance is the ________.
A) mile B) meter C) light-year
D) kilometer
50. The measure of a star's brightness is called its ________.
A) parallax
B) color
C) magnitude
51. Which one of the objects listed below has the largest size?
A) globular clusters
B) galaxies
D) intensity
C) stars D) nebula
52. Which color stars have the highest surface temperature?
A) red
B) orange
C) yellow
D) blue
53. Which color stars have the coolest surface temperature?
A) red
B) orange
C) yellow
D) blue
54. Which main-sequence stars are the most massive?
A) red
B) orange
C) yellow
D) blue
55. The most dense stars known to exist are ________.
A) black holes
B) neutron stars C) white dwarfs D) red dwarfs
56. The Sun belongs to this class of stars.
A) black hole
B) main-sequence star
C) red giant
D) white dwarf
57. The point in stellar evolution when a star has used up all its fuel and is radiating away its remaining thermal energy as
light is the ________ stage.
A) black hole
B) main-sequence star
C) red giant
D) white dwarf
58. Most stars are in this stage of evolution.
A) black hole
B) main-sequence star
C) red giant
D) white dwarf
59. The final stage for a star which is as massive as the Sun is a ________.
A) black hole
B) main-sequence star
C) red giant
D) white dwarf
60. When a main-sequence star has exhausted the fuel in the inner region, it becomes a ________.
A) black hole
B) main-sequence star
C) red giant
D) black dwarf
61. The discovery that the universe appears to be expanding led to a widely accepted theory called ________.
A) the Big Bang
B) Hubble's Law
C) Einstein's Law
D) the Doppler effect