Physics 111 Exam 1 Fall 2017 Multiple Choice. Choose the one alternative that BEST completes the statement or answers the question, and mark your scan sheet. Each question is worth two points. Only the scan sheet will be graded. 1) If the Moon is setting at noon, then it rose at A) 9 A.M. B) noon. C) 6 P.M. D) 6 A.M. E) midnight. 2) How many arcminutes are in one degree? A) 3600 B) 60 C) 10,000 D) 100 E) 360 3) What happens during the apparent retrograde motion of a planet? A) The planet rises in the west and sets in the east. This is an illusion completely due to Earth's motion. B) The planet's orbit decays and it retrogressively returns to its former orbit. C) The planet, under strong gravitational influences, travels backwards, westward in its orbit around the Sun. D) The planet appears to turn around in its eastward path through the stars and backs up for many nights traveling westwardly. 4) Ancient people who knew the saros cycle could A) completely predict every lunar eclipse. B) predict what type of eclipse would occur. C) predict when they'd see the next total solar eclipse in their area. D) predict when an eclipse would happen, but not necessarily what type and where it would be visible. E) completely predict every solar eclipse. 5) In addition to the conditions required for any solar eclipse, what must also be true in order for you to observe a total solar eclipse? A) Earth must be near aphelion in its orbit of the Sun. B) Earth must lie completely within the Moon's penumbra. C) The Moon's umbra must touch the area where you are located. D) Earth must lie completely within the Moon's umbra. E) The Moon's penumbra must touch the area where you are located. 6) If part of the full moon passes through Earth's umbra, we will see a(n) A) partial solar eclipse. B) penumbral lunar eclipse. C) annular eclipse. D) partial lunar eclipse. E) total lunar eclipse. 7) The Sun A) circles around the celestial equator once each year. B) is a fixed point on the celestial sphere at its distance from Earth. C) is the fixed point at the north celestial pole. D) seems to move around the celestial sphere daily to the East. 1
8) While the historical definition of a constellation is "a pattern or figure of stars in the sky," the modern definition used by astronomers is A) any grouping of very bright stars in our galaxy, often hosting a star cluster. B) a group of stars in the sky that are all very close to each other. C) a specifically named and bordered region of the celestial sphere. D) no definition. Astronomers no longer use the term constellation, just numerical coordinates. 9) Why is it summer in the Northern Hemisphere when it is winter in the Southern Hemisphere? A) The Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun and receives more direct sunlight. B) Due to Earth's tilt, the Northern Hemisphere is closer to the Sun than the Southern Hemisphere. C) The Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun and receives more indirect sunlight. D) It isn't; both hemispheres have the same seasons at the same time. Summer comes when Earth is nearest the Sun. 10) What observations supported Copernicus' hypothesis that the planets orbit the sun to be promoted to a theory? A) observation of the moons of Jupiter B) observation of sunspots C) observation of Venus' phases D) both A and B E) both A and C 11) His model put the Sun in the center, but was not very accurate because the orbits were perfect circles. A) Newton B) Kepler C) Copernicus D) Galileo E) Tycho 12) When did humans first learn that Earth is not the center of the universe? A) about 2000 years ago B) around the time that early humans acquired language C) within the past 500 years D) We haven't; there is still considerable scientific debate about whether Earth is the center of the universe. 13) Which of the following statements best describes the accomplishments of these men? A) Tycho collected the data, Newton provided the model in the form of laws, Kepler explained the model in terms of gravity. B) Newton collected the data, Tycho provided the model in the form of laws, Kepler explained the model in terms of gravity. C) Kepler collected the data, Tycho provided the model in the form of laws, Newton explained the model in terms of gravity. D) Tycho collected the data, Kepler provided the model in the form of laws, Newton explained the model in terms of gravity. 14) The point along a planet's orbit where it is closest to the Sun is called the orbit's A) semi-major axis. B) perihelion. C) eccentricity. D) aphelion. E) period. 2
15) Kepler's second law, which states that as a planet moves around its orbit it sweeps out equal areas in equal times, means that A) the period of a planet does not depend on its mass. B) planets have circular orbits. C) a planet's period does not depend on the eccentricity of its orbit. D) a planet travels faster when it is nearer to the Sun and slower when it is farther from the Sun. E) planets that are farther from the Sun move at slower average speeds than nearer planets. 16) From Kepler's third law, an asteroid with an orbital period of 8 years lies at an average distance from the Sun equal to A) 4 astronomical units. B) 8 astronomical units. C) 16 astronomical units. D) 2 astronomical units. E) It depends on the asteroid's mass. 17) How did the Ptolemaic model explain the apparent retrograde motion of the planets? A) It held that this motion occurs as Earth passes by another planet in its orbit of the Sun. B) It held that sometimes the planets moved backwards along their circular orbits. C) It held that the planets resided on giant spheres that sometimes turned clockwise and sometimes turned counterclockwise. D) It held that the planets moved along small circles that moved on larger circles around Earth, and that the combined motion sometimes resulted in backward motion. 18) He discovered that the orbits of planets are ellipses. A) Copernicus B) Ptolemy C) Galileo D) Kepler E) Tycho Brahe 19) At the Sun Dagger in New Mexico, a dagger-shaped beam of sunlight pierces a spiral A) at sunset on the spring equinox. B) every day at noon. C) at noon on the day of the full moon each month. D) at noon on the summer solstice. E) during the totality of a total solar eclipse. 20) The force due to gravity between two objects can be described using the equation Fg = G M1 M2 / d2. According to this equation, if the distance between two objects increases, what happens to the gravitational force between them? A) The force drops instantly to zero. B) The gravitational force is not affected by distance. C) The force increases. D) The force decreases. 21) Earth is farthest from the Sun in July and closest to the Sun in January. During which Northern Hemisphere season is Earth moving fastest in its orbit? A) summer B) spring C) fall D) winter 22) Which of the following would be the most capable ultraviolet telescope? A) a 10 meter telescope, on a mountain B) a 30 meter telescope, on a mountain C) a 4 meter telescope, in space D) a 2.5 meter telescope, in space 3
23) The simplified spectra for four stars is shown here. Which star has the lowest temperature? A) star C (yellow line) B) star B (orange line) C) star A (green line) D) star D (purple line) 24) Doppler shifted hydrogen absorption lines are seen in the spectrum of a star. The hydrogen line at 656.28 nm is seen to be shifted to 656.08 nm. Is the star moving towards or away from us, or can we not tell? A) moving away from us B) moving towards us C) There is not enough information to determine the answer. 25) Earth's atmosphere is the most transparent to which type of light? A) visible B) X-ray C) infrared D) ultraviolet 26) When an electron in an atom goes from a lower energy state to a higher energy state, the atom can A) emit a photon of any frequency. B) absorb a photon of a specific frequency. C) emit a photon of a specific frequency. D) absorb several photons of a specific frequency. E) absorb a photon of any frequency. 27) Which of the following statements about X-rays and radio waves is not true? A) X-rays have higher energy than radio waves. B) X-rays have higher frequency than radio waves. C) X-rays and radio waves are both forms of light, or electromagnetic radiation. D) Neither X-rays nor radio waves can penetrate Earth's atmosphere. E) X-rays have shorter wavelengths than radio waves. 28) How much better is a 10-meter diameter mirror than a 5-meter diameter mirror, in a space telescope for visible/optical light? A) 4 times more collecting area, 4 times better angular resolution. B) 4 times more collecting area, 2 times better angular resolution. C) 2 times more collecting area, 2 times better angular resolution. D) Telescope mirror size doesn't matter. 4
29) From lowest energy to highest energy, which of the following correctly orders the different categories of electromagnetic radiation? A) infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, X-rays, gamma rays, radio B) gamma rays, X-rays, visible light, ultraviolet, infrared, radio C) radio, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, X-rays, gamma rays D) visible light, infrared, X-rays, ultraviolet, gamma rays, radio E) radio, X-rays, visible light, ultraviolet, infrared, gamma rays 30) Why are planetary orbits ellipses? A) The gravitational force between the Sun and the planets varies as 1/distance2 B) They aren't; they're really circular. C) The gravitational force is weaker for more distant planets. D) That's what Kepler showed they are. E) Circular orbits don't agree with observations 31) The person who was responsible for getting Newton to publish his work on motion and gravity in the Principia was A) Galileo B) John Locke C) Robert Hooke D) Edmund Halley E) King Charles II 32) When the Hubble Space Telescope was first used in 1990, what caused the images that it produced to be blurry? A) spherical aberration B) parabolic distortion C) dust on its primary mirror D) chromatic aberration E) faulty image processing software 33) Who said this: "What is a Man, If his chief good and market of his time Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more. Sure, he that made us with such large discourse, Looking before and after, gave us not That capability and god-like reason To fust in us unused." A) Galileo, in his response to the Vatican B) Issac Newton in the Principia C) Julius Caesar, in Shakespeare's play D) Johannes Kepler, in the Sidereal Messenger E) Hamlet, in Shakespeare's play 34) If I tell you to look for a star called "beta - Sagittarii", you would look in the constellation Sagittarius for the A) faintest star B) reddest star C) first star in Sagittarius to rise D) second brightest star E) brightest star 5
35) If the Earth - Moon system could be put in the this room to scale, the Earth would be represented by a basketball, and the Moon would be about 30 feet away and be represented by A) another basketball B) a large beachball C) a marble D) a grain of sand E) a baseball 36) In 1609, when Galileo first used his telescope to look at the heavens, who was with him? A) the Pope B) his daughter C) his wife D) Johaness Kepler E) Dr. Alexander - yes, he is that old. 37) How old was Isaac Newton when he discovered his three laws of motion and law of gravitation and invented Calculus? A) an old man, just befor he died B) in his 30's C) in his 40's D) in his 20's 38) What holds atoms together? A) nothing, they just stay that way B) the gravitational force between the nucleus and the electrons C) the electric force between the protons in the nucleus and the electrons D) the strong and weak nuclear forces 6
39) The telescope below is a common design for good quality inexpensive telescopes. It is a Schmitt design which means: A) it uses a parabolic mirror as do all reflecting telescopes B) it has an achromatic primary lens to counter chromatic aberration C) it uses a spherical mirror with a correcting lens to counter the spherical aberration D) it is computer controlled making it easier to find things in the sky 40) The angular separation of two stars is 0.1 arcseconds and you photograph them with a telescope that has an angular resolution of 1 arcsecond. What will you see? A) The two stars will appear to be touching, looking rather like a small dumbbell. B) You will see two distinct stars in your photograph. C) The stars will not show up at all in your photograph. D) The photo will seem to show only one star rather than two. 41) When traveling north from the United States into Canada, you'll see the North Star (Polaris) getting. A) brighter B) dimmer C) lower in the sky D) higher in the sky 42) During the period each year when we see Mars undergoing apparent retrograde motion in our sky, what is really going on in space? A) Mars is moving around the Sun in the opposite direction from which Earth is moving around the Sun. B) Earth and Mars are on opposite sides of the Sun. C) Earth and Mars are getting closer together. D) Earth is catching up with and passing by Mars in their respective orbits. 43) If we have a new moon today, when will we have the next full moon? A) in about 6 months B) in about 1 week C) in about 1 month D) in about two weeks 7
44) Failing to predict this planet's orbit so frustrated Kepler that it led him to consider an ellipse, rather than a circle, as the shape of a planet's orbit. A) Jupiter B) Saturn C) Venus D) Mars 45) When Copernicus first created his Sun-centered model of the universe, it did not lead to substantially better predictions of planetary positions than the Ptolemaic model. Why not? A) Copernicus placed the Sun at the center, but did not realize that the Moon orbits the Earth. B) Copernicus misjudged the distances between the planets. C) Copernicus placed the planets in the wrong order going outward from the Sun. D) Copernicus used perfect circles for the orbits of the planets. 46) Which planet hosts the Galilean moons? A) Saturn B) Mars C) Jupiter D) Venus 47) Which of the following statements about an ellipse is not true? A) The focus of an ellipse is always located precisely at the center of the ellipse. B) An ellipse with a large eccentricity looks much more elongated (stretched out) than an ellipse with a small eccentricity. C) A circle is considered to be a special type of ellipse. D) The semimajor axis of an ellipse is half the length of the longest line that you can draw across an ellipse. 48) Newton showed that Kepler's laws are. A) actually only three of seven distinct laws of planetary motion B) the key to proving that Earth orbits our Sun C) natural consequences of the law of universal gravitation D) seriously in error 49) Which of the following best describes why we say that light is an electromagnetic wave? A) Light can be produced only by electric or magnetic appliances. B) The passage of a light wave can cause electrically charged particles to move up and down. C) The term electromagnetic wave arose for historical reasons, but we now know that light has nothing to do with either electricity or magnetism. D) Light is produced only when massive fields of electric and magnetic energy collide with one another. 50) The Chandra X-ray Observatory must operate in space because A) X-rays are too dangerous to be allowed on the ground. B) X-rays do not penetrate Earth's atmosphere. C) X-ray telescopes require the use of grazing incidence mirrors. D) it was built by NASA. 8