Brandeis University PHSC 2B (Astronomy)

Fall 2007 Professor Wardle

Name (printed)______________________                    Signature_________________

PHSC 2b Introduction to Astronomy
45 minute 1/3 Examination; Thursday, October 11, 2007

Try and do every question on this exam. Each question (or sub question) is worth one point 
unless otherwise stated. Be sure you have all the pages.  Write ONLY your final answers on the  
fronts of these pages, in the places provided. Use the backs of these pages for all rough working, 
calculations, or additional sketches to figure out a problem. Numerical answers should be given 
to two significant figures.
Please print your name and sign the first page. Good Luck.
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Useful formulas and numbers:
206265 D 57.3D
 Α =   arcseconds;   Α =   degrees;
d d
 Vorb = m/s;    Vesc / Vorb  =  ;  radius of Earth = 6,400 km;
Earth ­ Moon distance = 384,000 km;   c = 3.0 x 108 m/s
1 A.U. = 1.5 x  1011 m = 500 light seconds;    P2 = a3;          F = G;      a = F/m
G = 6.7 x 10­11 (if you are working in meters, kilograms and seconds); 
Mars ­ Sun distance = 1.5 A.U.;   Jupiter ­ Sun distance = 5.2 A.U.; 
Mass of the Sun = 2 x 1030 kg; Mass of the Earth = 6 x 1024 kg;
d = 1/p parsecs;         angular diameter of moon = 0.5 degrees.
1 parsec = 206265 A.U.; 60 arcsec = 1 arcmin; 60 arcmin = 1 degree
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Questions 1) and 2) are worth 5 points each, and are to be answered in 25 words or fewer, in 
full grammatical sentences. 

1.  What did Tycho Brahe do? 

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2. Explain how, long before Columbus, people knew the Earth was round.

4. If you are standing on the Moon, how often does the Sun rise?
a) never
b) about every 24 hours
c) about once per week
d) about once per month
e) about once per year

6. Sound travels at a speed of 300 meters per second. In analogy to

the light-year, what does 1 sound-minute equal?
a) The distance traveled by sound in 1 minute.
b) The time delay of a sound heard 300 meters away.
c) The time sound takes to travel 300 meters.
d) The speed of sound 1 minute later.

7. The distance to the Moon is equal to almost exactly 60 Earth radii. Therefore the acceleration
of the Moon towards the Earth must be
a) 9.8 m/s/s
b) 0.16 m/s/s

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c) 0.0027 m/s/s
d) 0.00 m/s/s

8. The distance from Boise to Waltham is 3630 km. If our friends at Boise State University took a
photograph of the Moon at exactly the same time as we took a photograph of the Moon
(synchronized by telephone):

a) Why will the position of the Moon with respect to the background stars look different in the
two photographs?___________________________________________________________

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b) Draw a little diagram to explain what you just said.

9.     Evaluate  a)  3x1021 multiplied by 2x10­6       _____________

b)  3x10121 multiplied by 2x10­6       _____________

c)  7 x 1032 divided by 2 x 10­22   _____________

d)  7 x 10232 divided by 2 x 10­22   _____________

e)  4 x 1050 minus 3 x 1049           _____________

f) square root of ( 25 x 1064)         _____________

g) square root of ( 25 x 10164)         _____________

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10. Suppose the distance to the Moon were twice its present value (and in a circular orbit, tilted
as it is now)
a) What would the angular size of the Moon be, as seen from Earth? ____________________

b) Could you have a total solar eclipse? ______________

c) Could you have an annular solar eclipse? ______________

d) Could you have a total lunar eclipse? _________________

d) How would the time from full moon to full moon (i.e. the period of the Moon’s orbit) compare
to what it is now?
a) unchanged
b) shorter by a factor of two
c) shorter by a factor of nearly three
d) longer by a factor of two
e) longer by a factor of nearly three

11. Compared to your mass here on Earth, your mass out in the space
between the stars would be __________.
a) zero
b) negligibly small
c) much much greater
d) the same
e) the question cannot be answered from the information given

12. Later this year a comet will be visible which has a semimajor axis of 64 A.U. In what year was
it last visble?
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13. Arrange the following items according to size, from the

smallest to the largest.
a) atom, planet, Sun, galaxy, cluster of galaxies.
b) proton, galaxy, open cluster, cluster of galaxies.
c) proton, star, galaxy, solar system.
d) Sun, solar system, cluster of galaxies, globular star cluster.

14. You're stranded on a desert island. You locate the pole star
Polaris. It is 17 degrees above the northern horizon. What is your
latitude?
a) 73 degrees south
b) 17 degrees north
c) 73 degrees north
d) 17 degrees south
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16. The orbital speed of Jupiter’s moon Europa is 13.7 km/s, and the radius of its orbit is
670,000 km. If you wanted to use these data to calculate the mass of the Jupiter, which formula
from the front page would you use?

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Rearrange your answer above into the form M = _____________________________

Are you going to check that everything is in the right units? _________

Now do the calculation: M = _________________________________

Argue that your answer is plausible based on two other pieces of information on the front page:

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