PHYS 1600 GUELPH FINAL EXAM REVIEW UPDATED ACTUAL QUESTIONS AND CORRECT ANSWERS

PHYS 1600 GUELPH FINAL EXAM REVIEW UPDATED
ACTUAL QUESTIONS AND CORRECT ANSWERS

Question:
1. Which word, in the list below, goes in the space? The _____________ period of a planet is the time it
takes the planet to go from a position among the fixed stars back to the same position
Answer:
sidereal

Question:
2. The Sun is at one focus of the Earth's elliptical orbit. What is at the other focus?
Answer:
nothing

Question:
3. A planet closer to the Sun will have ...
Answer:
the orbits were circular rather than elliptical.

Question:
4. The major contribution of Tycho Brahe to the development of modern astronomy was
Answer:
measure planetary positions very accurately

Question:
5. Which observation of Venus through his new telescope convinced Galileo that it orbited around the Sun
and not the Earth?
Answer:
Venus showed phases similar to those of the Moon and appeared largest when it was at crescent phase

Question:
6. An orbit with which of the following eccentricities is most circular?
Answer:
0.10

Question:
7. If an astronaut landed on a planet of the same radius as the Earth but 4 times the mass, then the
astronaut's weight on the planet would be
Answer:
4 times her weight on the Earth.

Question:
8. All planets undergo retrograde motion as seen from Earth.
Answer:
True

,Question:
9. When a planet is directly between the Earth and the Sun it is said to be in what configuration?
Answer:
inferior conjunction

Question:
10. The Earth, and all planets, move about the Sun in ___1____ orbits with the ___2___ at one focus and
____3___ at the other. Which choice of 1, 2, 3 below is correct?
Answer:
elliptical, Sun, nothing

Question:
11. Of the following planets, which takes the longest to go around the Sun?
Answer:
Uranus

Question:
12. The concept of the universe adopted by most ancient Greek philosophers was
Answer:
Tycho Brahe

Question:
13. What two things about Venus couldn't be explained by a geocentric cosmology
Answer:
That it has phases and changes apparent size.

Question:
14. Its mass would be the same as it is here on Earth.
Answer:
How would the mass of a brick change if it were placed on the Moon?

Question:
15. The occasional westward (left to right) motion of planets across the celestial sphere is called:
Answer:
retrograde motion

Question:
16. When Mercury is at its farthest distance from the Earth, it is at
Answer:
superior conjunction

Question:
17. The shape of a Mar's orbit around the Sun is best described as a(n):
Answer:
ellipse

, Question:
18. The planet Venus is closer to the Sun than the Earth. Which value below is the sidereal period of
Venus?
Answer:
225 days

Question:
19. What assumption made Copernicus' heliocentric cosmology no more accurate than geocentric
cosmology
Answer:
That planets orbit the Sun along circular paths

Question:
20. An object orbiting a star with an orbital eccentricity of e=0 has an orbit whose shape is
Answer:
circular

Question:
21. What did Galileo not observe with his new telescope?
Answer:
Uranus

Question:
22. If the distance between the Earth and the Sun is suddenly doubled, how does the gravitational attraction
between the two bodies change?
Answer:
It decreases by a factor of
4.

Question:
23. Which of the following correctly describes the rotation of the Moon?
Answer:
The Moon rotates once per month to keep one side always pointing toward the Earth

Question:
24. Leap years, which contain one extra day, are needed in order to correct for the fact that
Answer:
I year is not exactly 365 days but about 365.25 days

Question:
25. The Moon shows different phases because:
Answer:
we view the sunlit hemisphere of the Moon from different angles as the Moon orbits the Earth.

Question:
26. The reason why eclipses do not occur at every new moon and every full moon is that: