There are two versions of the Final Exam.
** Be sure to put your exam and scantron form in the correct pile. **
If you don't turn in your exam and fill out the correct Test Code on the
front of the scantron, you may get a zero on the exam! **
The final exam is short - only 50 multiple choice
questions
- so you will not be pressured for time. The questions will have 5
possible answers instead of 4 (choices A-E possible, not just A-D).
This is a comprehensive final exam.
** The lecture notes should be your primary source of study material. **
Be sure to use the "study hints" for the previous exams and review all
four old exams to prepare for this final exam.
Topics in the textbook that you don't need to know are the same ones
that you skipped for the individual exams.
You can SKIP THE FOLLOWING:
Ch 11: types of binary star systems; age of globular clusters
Ch 12: jets; brown dwarfs; fate of the Earth
Ch 13: novae; neutron stars in a close binary; X-ray binary stars
Ch 13.4 Gamma ray bursts
Ch 14: 21-centimeter line , dust grains (page 388)
Ch 15: "standard candles" through "Cepheids" through "distant
standard candles" (p 411-414) and the distance chain (417)
Ch 15: lookback time; protogalactic cloud; galactic wind
Ch 15: radio galaxies and jets
Ch 16.3 role of dark matter in galaxy formation (p 450)
Ch 16: Four expansion Patterns (p 455)
Ch 17 skip pages 466-474
Ch 17.3 Inflation (479-484)
Ch 18: Skip entire chapter (take the upper division GE course Astr
310:
"Astrobiology and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life" if you are
interested!)
Some examples of things you should know (this is a partial list!):
- What causes the seasons?
- Why are there phases of the Moon?
- Why do stars twinkle?
- What is the difference between a galaxy and the solar system?
- What is a black hole?
- How old is the Universe? How do we know?
- What makes the Sun shine?
- What is the ecliptic? What is the zodiac?
- What is the zenith?
- What is a solstice? What is an equinox?
- What is a magnitude?
- What did Copernicus/Galileo/Newton do that was so important?
- What are Kepler's Laws? What can you use Kepler's 3rd Law to learn?
- What is a CCD?
- How does a Newtonian telescope differ from a refractor?
- Why do astronomers put telescopes in space?
- How much more light does a telescope 10 meters in diameter collect
compared to a telescope 1 m in diameter?
- What are the differences between terrestrial and Jovian planets?
- What is a comet?
- What are planetary rings?
- What is a meteor? What is a meteor shower?
- What makes Titan unique?
- Why is Venus hotter than Mercury?
- What makes us think there was once a lot of water on Mars?
- What are asteroids?
- What is the Kuiper belt? The Oort cloud? The asteroid belt?
- What is Eris?
- Why is Pluto not considered a planet?
- What is the evidence there once was liquid water on Mars?
- Exactly what causes the greenhouse effect?
- How old is the solar system?
- What is light? What is a photon?
- What is the speed of light?
- What is the electromagnetic spectrum?
- What is the amount energy in a photon of light?
- What is spectroscopy?
- What are Kirchhoff's laws?
- What are spectral lines?
- What is an atomic number?
- What is a ion? What is an isotope?
- What is a blackbody spectrum?
- What is thermal radiation?
- What is Planck's law? Wien's law?
- What can color tell us about temperature, if the object is emitting
thermal radiation?
- How do we know the temperatures of stars?
- How do we know what stars are made of?
- How do we know how fast stars are moving?
- What is angular momentum?
- What is the corona? What is the convective zone?
- What is a solar flare?
- What are granules?
- What is a sunspot?
- What are aurora? What causes them?
- What powers the Sun?
- What is a neutrino?
- How old is the Sun?
- What is a light year?
- How can we measure the distances to stars?
- What things affect a stars apparent magnitude?
- What do spectral types tell us?
- Which is hotter, an O star or a M star? More massive?
- What spectral type is the Sun?
- What is the H-R diagram?
- What do luminosity classes tell us?
- How do stars age (evolve)?
- How much brighter does a star become if you triple its size and
double the temperature? (answer = 9x16=144)
- What is a white dwarf?
- What is a "planetary nebula"?
- What is a supernova?
- What can we learn from binary stars?
- What is a nebula?
- What is a globular star cluster? What is a galactic cluster?
- What are the three types of galaxies?
- What does the Milky Way look like?
- How big is the Milky Way?
- What is Hubble's Law?
- What does the large-scale structure of the universe look like?
- What does it mean that the Universe is expanding?
- How old is the Universe?
- What is the "big bang" theory? What evidence supports the theory?
- What is "dark matter"?
Please thoroughly review the following:
+ Kepler's 3rd law (the full Newtonian version, not the simplified
version)
+ Newton's law of gravity
+ Wien's law
+ Doppler law
+ Stefan-Boltzmann law
+ Hubble law
+ H-R Diagram
+ Stellar evolution
+ Structure of stars
+ Structure and size of galaxies
+ Big Bang and modern cosmology
General hints for final exam preparation:
- The lecture notes are by far the most important source of information.
- Read the "Big Picture" and "Summary of Key Concepts" section at the
end of each Chapter several times.
- Know the definitions of the "key words" (in bold typeface) at the end
the chapters. Skip the ones that were never mentioned in class. (For
example, we never talked about the periodic table or gamma ray bursts or
inflation)
- Examine the links on the class webpage to on-line resources to help
reinforce ideas and concepts.
- Study the previous exams: understand each question and choice.
GOOD LUCK!
Last Update: 2008 May 11