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! **
- Calculators are allowed.
- You may bring one standard size sheet of paper with notes on it.
(yes, you can write on both sides; and a typed version is okay)
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 (choices A-E).
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.
** Use the previous Study Guides and exams to help you prepare for the final
exam. **
You can SKIP THE FOLLOWING:
NOTE: Page numbers may have changed in the latest edition of the
texbook.
Ch 1: Can we see the entire universe? on p 9
Ch 2: annular and partial eclipses; penumbra; saros cycle (p 46-47)
Ch 3: Tycho Brahe
Ch 4: atmospheric drag (p 101)
Ch 5: Table 5.1 Largest Optical Telescopes (p 129)
Ch 6: Table 6.1 - don't need to memorize any of these facts
Ch 7: p-waves and s-waves, etc (p 193); Section 7.5 (p 216-226)
Ch 8: metallic hydrogen (p 237)
Ch 9: Resonances with Jupiter (p 261); primitive & processed
meteorites (p 262)
Ch 10: Zeeman effect (p 296)
Ch 12: jets (p 335); brown dwarfs (p 337); fate of the Earth (p 344)
Ch 13: novae (p 366); Gamma ray bursts (section 13.4)
Ch 14: cooling and cloud formation, 21-centimeter line, dust grains
(p 394-395); protogalactic cloud (p 402)
Ch 15: Edwin Hubble's galaxy classes (p 415); Why do galxies differ
and the conditions in the protogalactic cloud (p 428);
starburst galaxies and galactic wind (p 430-431); Black holes and galaxy
formation (p 436)
Ch 17 What were Conditions Like in the Early Universe (p 472-473);
Planck era, GUT era
A few examples of things you should know (this is only a partial
list - you are expected to know a lot more!):
- 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 is parallax?
- 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 the Principle of Occam's Razor?
- What is a CCD?
- How does a Newtonian telescope differ from a refractor?
- Why do astronomers put telescopes in space?
- What is refraction?
- What is resolution?
- Why do modern big telescope use segmented mirrors?
- What is light? What is a photon?
- What is the speed of light?
- What is the electromagnetic spectrum?
- What is the relationship between frequency and wavelength?
- What is the amount energy in a photon of light?
- What is spectroscopy?
- What are Kirchhoff's 3 laws?
- What are spectral lines?
- What is a proton?
- 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 Stefan-Boltzmann's law, and what does it tell us?
- What is Doppler's law?
- What does it mean that spectral lines are Doppler shifted?
- What are the differences between terrestrial and Jovian planets?
- What is "regolith"?
- What is the lunar mare?
- What is a comet?
- What are planetary rings?
- What makes Titan unique?
- What causes/creates craters?
- Why is there no life on the Moon?
- Why is Venus much 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?
- How do stars and planets form?
- What is an extrasolar planet?
- How are extrasolar planets discovered?
- What are extrasolar planet like? Terrestrial or Jovian? Why?
- Why is Venus hot and Mars cold if they both have atmospheres that are
mostly carbon dioxide?
- What is a runaway greenhouse effect?
- What is a meteor? A meteorite?
- What causes a meteor shower?
- Why does the Moon have no atmosphere?
- What is thermonuclear fusion?
- What is the proton-proton chain? The CNO-cycle?
- How hot is the core of the Sun?
- What is the corona? What is the convective zone?
- What is a solar flare?
- What are granules? What causes them?
- What is a sunspot? What causes them?
- What are aurora? What causes them?
- What powers the Sun?
- What is a neutrino? What is a positron?
- How old is the Sun?
- What is the solar magnetic activity cycle? How long is it?
- What is the solar wind?
- What is "space weather"?
- What is helioseismology?
- What is the sunspot cycle?
- Why is the color of the Sun white?
- What is a light year?
- What is a parsec?
- What is an absolute magnitude?
- 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?
- Is the Sun unusual in any way for a star?
- 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 x brighter)
- What is a white dwarf?
- What is a "planetary nebula"?
- What is a supernova?
- What can we learn from binary stars?
- What is the "main sequence"?
- What is a nebula?
- Why do stars form out of cold nebulae, not hot nebulae?
- What is "stellar evolution"?
- What is the fate of the Sun?
- What is a neutron star?
- What is a black hole?
- What is the Schwarzchild radius? What is the "event horizon"?
- Why are supernova important for the creation of the element?
- What elements are created in stellar thermonuclear fusion?
- How is the Stefan-Boltzmann law closely linked with the HR diagram?
- What is gravitational accretion power?
- What is a globular star cluster? What is a galactic star cluster?
- What are the three types of galaxies? How do they differ?
- What are the components of a spiral galaxy?
- Why are spiral arms more blue in color than the bulge?
- How many stars does a typical galaxy have?
- What is the typical size of a galaxy?
- Why are spiral galaxies bluer in color than elliptical galaxies?
- What does the Milky Way look like? What type of galaxy?
- How big is the Milky Way?
- What is a galaxy cluster?
- What does the large-scale structure of the universe look like?
- What is Hubble's Law?
- What is a megaparsec (Mpc)?
- What does it mean when we say space is stretching?
- How do we measure the expansion of the Universe?
- How old is the Universe?
- How do we extimate the age of the Universe?
- What elements were created in the big bang?
- What is the "big bang" theory?
- What are the several key pieces of evidence that supports the theory?
- What is "Olber's paradox"?
- What is the "cosmic microwave background"?
- How can we use Wien's law to tell what wavelength has the maximum
intensity of the cosmic microwave background?
- What is big bang nucleosynthesis?
- How can we use Kepler's law to measure the mass of a galaxy?
- What is "dark matter" all about?
Please thoroughly review the following:
+ Kepler's 3rd law (the full Newtonian version, as well as the
simplified version)
+ Newton's law of gravity
+ Wien's law
+ Doppler law
+ Stefan-Boltzmann law
+ Hubble's law
+ The H-R diagram
+ Stellar evolution
+ Structure of the Sun and stars
+ Thermonuclear fusion
+ Structure and size of galaxies
+ Hubble's law
+ Big Bang and modern cosmology
+ The Cosmic Microwave Background
** SEE APPENDIX B (page A-3) for a list of the formulae to help you review.
**
(you can skip the angular separation formula.
Practice Questions:
1. Which of the following is FALSE (not true)?
A) we can use the Doppler effect to discover extrasolar planets
B) we can use the Hubble constant to extimate the age of the universe
C) we can use Kepler's law to estimate the temperature of a star
D) we can use spectroscopy to determine what a star is made of
E) we can use Wien's law and the temperature of a star to estimate
what color the star will appear to be
2. If you look at the night sky with binoculars and see a red star
what spectral type is is most likely to be?
A) M type
B) B type
C) O type
D) A type
E) G type
3. The two most abundant elements in the Universe are:
A) carbon and oxygen
B) hydrogen and helium
C) hydrogen and carbon
D) water and carbon dioxide
E) positrons and electrons
4. One astronomical unit (1 AU) is defined as the
A) distance at which the Earth-Sun separation will subtend 1 arcsecond.
B) distance traveled by light in 1 parsec.
C) distance traveled by the Earth in 1 year.
D) distance between the Sun and the Earth, on average.
E) distance from the Sun to Pluto; the radius of the Solar System.
5. The temperature of the Sun's "surface" (in Kelvin) is approximately:
A) 5,800 degrees
B) 16,300 degrees
C) 247,000 degrees
D) 15 million degrees
E) 273 billion degrees
6. The spectral-luminosity class of "Star #1" is A2 V, and that of
"Star #2" is K3 III. From this information alone we can tell
A) that Star #1 has a cooler surface than Star #2.
B) that Star #1 has a hotter photosphere than Star #2.
C) that Star #1 is older than Star #2.
D) that Star #1 is closer to the Sun than Star #2.
E) that Star #1 is moving away from the Sun faster than Star #2.
7. Which of the following DOES NOT affect how bright a star appears?
A) the star's surface temperature
B) the star's radius
C) the distance to the star
D) the orientation of the star's angular momentum axis
E) the amount of interstellar dust between Earth and the star
8. In the thermonuclear proton-proton chain, what particle is created to
conserve momentum?
A) a neutrino
B) a neutron
C) a Bohron
D) a proton
E) an anti-proton
9. Consider a star with a photospheric temperature of 50,000 K. At what
wavelength is the intensity of its thermal radiation the greatest?
A) 5.8 meters
B) 58 m
C) 58 nm
D) 500 nm
E) 50,000 nm
10. What does the astronomical term "seeing" mean?
A) the combined effects of flaws in the telescope optics and CCD
B) the twinkling and blurring of an image due to turbulent air
currents in the Earth's atmosphere
C) the amount of haze or thin cloud in the atmosphere that affects
the brightness of an image seen through a telescope
D) the effect of Cassegrain nebulosity, that can cause a shepherding
equinox effect in the Cassini division
E) light pollution glare that blinds the prime focus of a telescope
11. Suppose a spiral galaxy is 100 Mpc from the Milky Way. Which of the
following is TRUE?
A) this galaxy has no more dust or nebula
B) this galaxy contains only M stars and giant stars
C) 8 billion years ago this galaxy was closer to the Milky Way
D) this galaxy cannot have any more supernova
E) this galaxy used to be an elliptical galaxy
12. The main general features that make clusters of stars useful to
astronomers studying stellar evolution are that:
A) the stars are at the same distance from Earth, were formed at about the
same time, and were made from same chemical mix of elements.
B) the stars are at the same distance from Earth and have the same
surface temperature, but joined the cluster at various times.
C) the stars all have the same apparent magnitude, but different
absolute magnitudes.
D) the stars all have the same absolute magnitude, metalicity and mass.
E) the stars are all moving away from us with the same Hubble velocity.
And here's A QUESTION THAT WILL BE ON THE FINAL EXAM:
Suppose a galaxy is moving away at 100 km/s. At what wavelength would its
observed H alpha line be shifted to?
General hints for final exam preparation:
- Study the previous homework: understand each question and choice.
Note: the solutions to HW #3 will be posted on-line.
- Study the previous exams: understand each question and choice.
- 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)
- Examine the links on the class webpage to on-line resources to help
reinforce ideas and concepts.
- Go the the last of the Astronomy Help Room sessions.
GOOD LUCK!