Astronomy Homework #1: Scales of the Universe
Name____________________________ Class Meeting Time ________
Turn this cover sheet in with your assignment.
Please, answer the following Review Questions at the end of Section 1.1 from Nick Strobel’s Astronomy Notes.
Please write or type out the question and use complete sentences to answer the questions. Mathematical work
can be done by hand.
Review Questions starting on page 9
1. The fastest plane can travel at about 4400 kilometers/hour. How long would it take to travel to the Sun?
Convert your answer to the number of days and then the number of years. (The time it takes to travel a
given distance = (distance travelled)/speed, or in the notation used in the chapter: t = D/v.)
2. How far away is the nearest star outside of the solar system in kilometer units and light year units?
3. How many kilometers would a light year be if it was discovered that the speed of light was two times
slower than previously thought?
4. Where is our solar system in the Milky Way Galaxy?
5. How old is the Earth compared to the age of the universe?
6. How many times older is the Earth than the first civilizations?
7. What would be the altitude and azimuth of Polaris for observers at the following locations:*
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Syracuse, NY (43°N, 76°W)
Moscow, Russia (56°N, 37°E)
Havana, Cuba (23°N, 82°W)
Fairbanks, Alaska, (65°N, 147°W)
Quito, Ecuador (9°S, 78°W)
Buenos Aries, Argentina (35°S, 58°W)
8. How many degrees does the Earth rotate on its axis each hour? If a star crosses an observer’s meridian
in Syracuse, NY at 9:00 p.m. on Monday, at what time will it cross the meridian for an observer in
Moscow, Russia? Remember that the Earth rotates eastward on its axis.*
*These last two problems do not appear in Strobel’s Astronomy Notes