Astronomy Review

1. Astronomy Review The Moon, Tides, and Gravitation

2. What is the mean distance of Earth to the moon?

3. Is the moon always the same distance to Earth?

4. How do we know with precision the distance between Earth and the moon?

5. Why does the moon have no atmosphere?

6. How is the moon’s weak gravitational field related to the moon’s escape velocity?

7. What would be the advantage of having a rocket base on the moon?

8. Is there a dark side of the moon?

9. Why is there one side of the moon that we never see?

10. True or false • The moon always shines on half of the moon?

11. When does a full moon set?

12. At what time does a first quarter moon rise?

13. When does a new moon set?

14. If you are a two hundred pound person, how much will you weigh on the moon?

15. If you live on the moon, would you see Earth going through phases?

16. When the moon is a new moon as seen from Earth, what phase would Earth be in as seen from the moon?

17. What characteristic of the moon allows us to study the history of impacts (from asteroids, comets, and meteors) in the early solar system?

18. How can we use the discovery of water on the moon to study the origin of water on Earth?

19. What makes a spring tide?

20. What characterizes a neap tide?

21. Which is a higher tide, a spring tide or a neap tide?

22. Why is the spring tide higher than the neap tide?

23. Where does one piece of evidence that the Earth’s rotation is slowing come from?

24. Why is Earth’s rotation slowing?

25. When we say that a planet or moon is tidally locked, what does that mean?

26. What can a planet’s escape velocity tell us about the mass of a planet?

27. What formula characterizes Newton’s second law?

28. Which of Newton’s laws explains why there is an asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter?

29. Assuming ideal conditions, who falls at a faster rate, an elephant or an ant?

30. Why do they fall at the same rate?