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74 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
What is the average power consumption of ahuman? |
100 watts |
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What is a spectrum? |
A and B |
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A red chair appears red to the eye because |
it reflects red light |
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The speed of light is |
the product of its wavelength and its frequency. |
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Light with a short wavelength |
none of the above |
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How does visible light compare to radio waves? |
Visible light waves have a shorter wavelength thanradio waves. |
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A photon with a longer wavelength |
has a lower frequency than a photon with a shortwavelength. |
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Turning up the intensity of a light source |
increases the number of photons it emits persecond. |
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What is the atomic mass number of carbon-13(6 protons, 7 neutrons, 6 electrons)? |
13 |
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A molecule is |
two or more atoms linked together. |
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Which lists the phases of matter in order ofincreasing temperature? |
solid, liquid, gas, plasma |
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A plasma is a |
gas of ions. |
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What is the pressure exerted by Earth'satmosphere on the surface of Earth? |
14.7 pounds per square in |
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How do electrons in an atom change energy? |
Electrons move between discrete energy levels, or escape theatom if given enough energy |
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The spectrum from an incandescent (with afilament) light bulb is a(n) |
continuous spectrum |
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Sunlight shining through a thin, cool gasproduces a(n) |
absorption line spectrum |
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The wavelengths of emission lines from a gasdepend on |
all of the above |
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Wien's Law states that |
hotter objects are brightest at a shorter wavelengththan cooler objects |
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How does the Doppler effect affect an emissionline spectrum if the emitting object is rotating? |
The emission lines get broader |
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How does the Doppler effect affect an emissionline spectrum if the emitting object is movingtoward you? |
The emission lines move to shorter wavelengths. |
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How do the cornea and lens affect lightentering the eye? |
Light travels slightly slower moving through them, causing thedirection of the incoming light to change and focus on theretina. |
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Why can cameras see objects too faint to beseen by the eye? |
They can record light for a longer period of time. |
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The electronic detector of a digital cameraperforms the same role as what part of theeye? |
the retina |
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What is the diffraction limit? |
It is the theoretical limit on the angular resolution of a telescope thatdepends on the wavelength of light and the size of the aperture. |
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Which of the following is not a problem forrefracting telescopes? |
The secondary mirror blocks some of the light passingthrough the primary lens. |
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Improving the spectral resolution of aspectrograph comes at the expense of |
increased exposure time |
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What is a light curve? |
a plot showing how an object's intensity varies with time |
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What is light pollution? |
It is city light scattering off the atmosphere and into atelescope. |
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How does atmospheric turbulence affecttelescopic observations? |
It reduces the angular resolution of the image |
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Which of the following is not an advantage ofspace telescopes? |
They are closer to the astronomical objects theyare observing. |
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What part(s) of the spectrum can only beobserved from space? |
C and D |
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NASA's SOFIA airborne observatory observeswhich part of the spectrum? |
infrared |
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How does adaptive optics improve theperformance of a telescope? |
It rapidly adjusts the shape of the telescopes mirror tocompensate for the effects of turbulence. |
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What is interferometry? |
It is the analysis of interference patterns of light fromdifferent telescopes to enable combining the light intoone image. |
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How does interferometry improve thecapabilities of a telescope? |
It improves the angular resolution. |
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What would we see if we could look at our solarsystem, without a telescope, from a spaceshipbeyond Neptune's orbit? |
We would see the Sun and the largest planetsas pinpoints of light, but nothing else. |
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Which lists the planets in order of increasingsize (radius)? |
Mercury, Mars, Venus, Earth, Neptune, Uranus,Saturn, Jupiter |
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How does the size of the Sun compare to thesize of Earth? |
The Sun is about 100 times larger than Earth |
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Which of the following planets has the mostdense atmosphere? |
Venus |
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Which of the following planets has polar icecaps? |
A and B |
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Which of the following planets has the mostoxygen in its atmosphere? |
Earth |
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Which planet has the most moons? |
Mars |
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Which planet has a volcanically active moon? |
Jupiter |
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Which of the following planets has rings? |
all of the above |
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Which planet has the largest tilt to its rotationaxis? |
Uranus |
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Which planet has a large moon that orbits inthe opposite direction of the planet's rotation? |
Neptune |
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Which of the following is a characteristic of adwarf planet? |
A dwarf planet must be round. |
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Which of the following planets has the coldestnighttime temperature? |
Mercury |
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Which of the following is not a characteristic ofjovian planets? |
They have a higher density than terrestrial planets. |
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What is the value of comparative planetology? |
all of the above |
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What characteristic of the planets is nearly thesame for all planets? |
orbit shape and orientation |
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Which of the following is not a clue to theformation of the solar system? |
The number of small rocky planets is equal tothe number of large gas-rich planets. |
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What spacecraft flew by Jupiter, Saturn,Uranus and Neptune? |
Voyager 2 |
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Why do orbiters typically cost more than flybymissions? |
They must carry extra fuel so that they can gointo orbit. |
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In order to be successful, a theory of theformation of the solar system must explain |
all of the above |
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Which of the following is not a problem for theclose encounter hypothesis for the origin of theplanets? |
none of the above (all are problems with the closeencounter hypothesis) |
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What is the origin of the elements that made upthe protoplanetary nebula? |
They were formed inside stars or supernovae thatexploded before the solar system formed. |
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Why was the protoplanetary nebula flat? |
It flattened as a result of collisions betweenparticles in the nebula. |
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Which of the following processes did notcontribute to orderly motions in the solarsystem? |
Hotter temperatures closer to the Sun and coolertemperatures farther from the Sun caused differentmaterials to condense at different distances fromthe Sun. |
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Which lists the ingredients of the solar nebulain order of increasing abundance? |
metals, rocks, hydrogen compounds |
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Why are the planets closest to the Sun moredense than those farther from the Sun? |
Only dense materials could condense close to theSun. |
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Where did hydrogen and helium gas condensein the protoplanetary nebula? |
nowhere |
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How did the small particles that condensed inthe solar nebula accrete to grow intoplanetesimals? |
They collided gently and stuck together throughelectrostatic forces. |
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How did the formation of jovian planets differfrom the formation of terrestrial planets? |
The jovian planetesimals became large enough togravitationally capture hydrogen and helium from thenebula. |
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What condensed beyond the frost line? |
all of the above |
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Why does the Sun rotate slowly today? |
The Sun transferred angular momentum to chargedparticles in the solar wind. |
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Why did planet formation eventually end? |
The solar wind removed the remaining nebulargas. |
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What happened to most of the mass originallyin the asteroid belt? |
Some of it crashed into the inner planets whilesome was ejected from the solar system. |
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Why do some of Jupiter's moons orbit in theopposite direction of Jupiter's rotation? |
They are captured planetesimals that encounteredJupiter in such a way that they ended up orbitingbackward |
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Which of the following features of the solarsystem can be explained by giant impacts? |
The existence of Earth's large moon. |
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Which of the following characteristics of thesolar system would we not necessarily expectto find around other stars? |
a terrestrial planet with a large moon |
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Radiometric dating can be used to determinethe amount of time since |
a rock most recently solidified |
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How old are the oldest meteorites? |
4.55 billion years |
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How do we verify the validity of radiometricdating? |
Both A and B. |