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Chapter 1   | Chapter 3   | Chapter 4   | Chapter 17 part 1| Chapter 17 part 2 | Chapter 2   | Chapter 18 | Chapter 19 | Chapter 20 | Chapter 21 | Chapter 22 | Chapter 23 | Chapter 24 |Chapter 25| Chapter 26 | Chapter 27  

Study Questions Part 1        Study Questions Part 2        Study Questions Part 3      Study Questions Part 4

 

STUDY QUESTIONS PART 1

 

Study Questions Chapter 1

These questions approximately correlate with the material covered in Week 1 

  1. Define and describe the systems of celestial coordinates and reference points (e.g. celestial equator, right ascension, etc.) Know all the terms on the handout of Celestial Coordinates from the first day of class (including Hour Angle and Local Sidereal Time)
  2. What is trigonometric parallax? Explain how it is used to find the distances to stars. Do we use this method for nearby or far away stars? What limits the usefulness of trigonometric parallax?
  3. What is a parsec?
  4. Explain the difference between a solar day and a sidereal day.
  5. What is precession?
  6. What is an "astronomical unit"? What does it measure?
  7. Be able to convert between distance units: km, AU, light years, parsecs.
  8. Know the dates for the greatest and least sunlight angle for an observer at 40 degrees north latitude ( i.e. Greencastle)
  9. Why are there seasons on Earth?

Review and Discussion: Ch. 1: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 17, 18, 19

Conceptual self-Test (answers given in the back of the text): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 12, 14

Also note that you can find answers to the "Concept Check" questions ( embedded in the text) in the back of the book. Many of these are essentially the same as the "Review and Discussion" questions, which are very similar to my questions. 

Study Questions Chapter 3

These questions approximately correlate with the material covered in Week 2 

  1. What do we mean by the term Aspectrum@?
  2. Explain what is meant by the term Ablackbody radiation@, and describe the laws that are associated with it.
  3. What are the characteristics of continuous, emission and absorption spectra? Under what conditions are each formed?
  4. What are Kirchoff's Law's?
  5. What is the electromagnetic spectrum? What are the names given to different wavelength regions? How does wavelength, frequency, speed, and energy vary across the electromagnetic spectrum?
  6. Explain the Doppler effect. What causes it? Why is it a useful tool for astronomy?
  7. Explain how we can determine the temperature of an object by observing the radiation it emits.

 Review and Discussion: Ch. 3: 2, 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18

Conceptual self-Test (answers given in the back of the text): 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19

 

Study Questions Chapter 4

These questions approximately correlate with the material covered in Week 3 

  1. In terms of atomic energy levels, explain how an emission line is formed.
  2. In terms of atomic energy levels, explain how an absorption line is formed.
  3. Explain the relation between emissions and absorption lines, and explain how they are related to atomic structure. 
  4. Explain how emission and absorption lines are formed.
  5. Discuss the kinds of information we learn from the spectrum of a star.
  6. What is spectral classification? What are the spectral classes? Explain how the spectrum of a star is used to determine its temperature. Discuss this in terms of atomic structure.
  7. Define flux and luminosity. What is the difference between them?
  8. Explain how we find the size of stars.
  9. Explain how two stars of the same temperature can have different luminosities.
  10. Explain how two stars of the same luminosity can have different temperatures. 
  11. Since stars are composed of mostly hydrogen, why don't most stars show spectral lines of hydrogen?

 Review and Discussion: Ch. 4: 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11

Conceptual self-Test (answers given in the back of the text): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 16

 

Study Questions from part of Chapter 17

These questions approximately correlate with the material covered in Week 4 

  1. What are apparent magnitude and absolute magnitude? What is the value of the standard distance?
  2. What range of stellar magnitudes can be seen by the naked eye? (Excluding the Sun!) What is the dimmest magnitude observed by the Hubble Space Telescope?
  3. Know how to solve problems involving absolute magnitude, apparent magnitude, and distance. 
  4. Describe the stellar magnitude scale. 
  5. Be able to do problems involving stellar luminosities and magnitudes compared to the Sun.
  6. Be able to find the radius of a star given its temperature and luminosity.

Review and Discussion: Ch.17: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10

Conceptual self-Test (answers given in the back of the text):1, 2, 3, 4, 14, 15, 16