ASTRONOMY 101
Spring 2001
Exam 1 Study Guide

Note: The Exam will be about 50% very short answer and 50% short answer. "Very short answer" may turn out to be fill in the blank, true/false and/or multiple choice or a number.  "Short answer" means a sentence or paragraph or a brief calculation.  A few questions may expect you to do simple calcuations involving quantitative ideas we have worked with in class (e.g., Kepler's Laws, Gravity, radioactivity). There will be no long essays.  The Exam will be closed book and closed notes. You may bring a calculator to use, although I don't expect you to need it. The emphasis will be on the topics and material we cover and discuss in class and homeworks, including related readings that fill in details or build on our classwork. I will not be searching through readings for trivia on which to base questions; rather, I will be focusing on important concepts and logical thinking. Nevertheless, some numbers are important, especially when they provide important comparisons or critical evidence concerning present or past phenomena in the solar system.  Also, while the homework questions and topics are important, they are by no means a comprehensive guide to important topics.

The Exam will cover material through the lectures of January 31.

The following topics/leading questions are meant as a guide but are not guaranteed to be a comprehensive listing of all relevant and important topics covered thus far.


I. Basics
  1. eclipses (lunar, solar)
  2. tides (causes, effects, where/how they are manifest in the solar system, differential gravity)
  3. day, week, month, year (solar, sidereal, tropical)
  4. precession
  5. seasons, solstices, equinoxes
  6. variation in length of day with time of year, with latitude on Earth
  7. calendar
  8. orbits
  9. phases & orbit of the Moon, telling time by the time of day and phase of the moon, relationship to tides
  10. general solar system information
  11. parallax (what is it? what is it used for?)
II. Radioactive dating
  1. half-lives
  2. carbon-14 dating
  3. examples of other radiodating isotopic systems (parent, daughter isotopes, half-lives)
  4. results for Earth rocks, moon rocks, meteorites
  5. a reason for radioactivity
  6. how is a radioactive "clock" reset?
  7. what are the effects of having radioactive materials naturally abundant deep in the Earth?
III. Orbits, Gravity
  1. Kepler's Laws (what are they? can you explain what they mean?)
  2. Kepler's Third Law (using the equation, making comparisons)
  3. Newton's Law of Gravity (explain it; using the equation, making comparisons)
IV. Craters
  1. on the Earth (ages, types, places)
  2. on the Moon (ages, types, places)
  3. Maria vs  lunar highlands
  4. history of cratering on Moon
  5. Early Bombardment
  6. energy of impacts vs. bombs and earthquakes