PSC 121
SPRING 2005
GAGE
NAME ____________________________
DATE ____________________________
QUIZ 4
I.
Multiple Choice: select the best answer for each question or statement from the
answers provided.
(30)
____1.
As seen from your current location, when will an upright flagpole cast no shadow
because the Sun is directly above the flagpole?
a. Every day at noon.
b. Only on the first day of summer.
c. Only on the first day of winter.
d. On both the first days of spring and fall.
e. Never from our current location.
____ 2.
When the Moon appears to completely cover the Sun (an eclipse), the Moon must be
at which phase?
a. Full
____ 3.
b. New
c. First quarter
d. Last quarter
Which of the following lists is correctly arranged in order of closest-to-most distant
from the Earth?
a. Stars, Moon, Sun, Pluto
b. Sun, Moon, Pluto, stars
c. Moon, Sun, Pluto, stars
d. Moon, Sun, stars, Pluto
e. Moon, Pluto, Sun, stars
____ 4.
e. At no particular phase
Suppose the Moon looked like this tonight.
What will it look like 6 hours later?
1
____ 5.
The planet Venus:
a.
does not rise or set
b.
rises in the east and sets in the west
c.
remains stationary since it is called the Evening Star
d.
rises at different directions in spring compared to fall
____ 6.
Imagine that the Earth’s orbit were changed to be a perfect circle about the Sun so
that the distance to the Sun never changed. How would this affect the seasons?
a. We would no longer experience a difference between the seasons.
b. We would still experience seasons, but the difference would be much LESS
noticeable.
c. We would still experience seasons, but the difference would be much MORE
noticeable.
d. We would continue to experience seasons in the same way we do now.
_____ 7.
When the Earth is located between Moon and the Sun, the phase of the Moon you
see is:
a.
visible from Earth at midnight
b.
visible from Earth during daylight hours
c.
only visible before sunset at high latitudes
d.
not visible at all
_____ 8.
If you wanted to determine the composition of a star you could use:
a.
b.
c.
d.
a sample from the star
the star color
the spectrum
a telescope
_____ 9.
Suppose your friend in Australia saw the phase of the Moon
shown to the right. What phase would you see that night?
_____ 10.
Eclipses do not occur every month because:
a.
b.
c.
d.
the Moon’s orbit is tipped with respect to the Sun-Earth plane
the Moon’s orbit is fixed in space
the correct phases do not occur each month
the Moon’s shadow is too short
2
_____ 11.
When the Earth revolves around the Sun once, the Moon revolves around
the Earth approximately____ times
a.
once
b.
12 times
c.
28 times
d.
365 times
_____ 12.
When the Moon appears to completely cover the Sun (an eclipse), the
Moon must be at which phase?
a. Full
_____ 13.
b. 1st Quarter
e. Can be any phase
c. waxing crescent
d. waning crescent
If you were at the equator you would:
a.
b.
c.
d.
_____ 15.
d. 3rd Quarter
Between the first quarter and full moon the moon is said to be:
a. waxing gibbous
b. waning gibbous
_____ 14.
c. New
see all stars as circumpolar
have no circumpolar stars
see stars rise in the west and set in the east
have several pole stars
Constellations consist of
a. planets that are mostly unrelated
b. stars that are mostly unrelated
c. stars that are part of a stellar cluster
d. stars that do not move in space
e. planets that form a pattern in the sky
II. Brief Constructed Responses. Answer each of the following briefly but completely.
(20)
1.
Your friend tells you that we only see one side of the Moon from Earth because the
Moon does not rotate. Is this true? Explain why or why not.
3
2.
The hottest part of the day should be at noon but often it is not. Explain why I should
by and why it isn’t.
3.
A student says that he went out to look for the Moon last night but it wasn’t there and
wants to know what happened to it. How would you explain his observation?
4.
It turns out that the star Alpha Centauri contains the element nitrogen. Explain how an
astronomer determines this and why the method is successful.
5.
Describe three celestial objects that are not stars, planets or moons.
4