6-WEEKS EXAM REVIEW

March 1, 2004   7:15-8:30 pm    3425 Sterling

The test will consist of 50 multiple choice questions, to be completed in 75 minutes. You are responsible for all topics in lectures, discussion sections, homeworks, and material in the readings related to those topics. You are strongly encouraged to have read the material in Bless deeply.

75% of the questions are conceptual, 25% are recall. So when studying make sure that you are UNDERSTANDING ideas more than memorizing. To help you study, download the lecture notes from www.astro.wisc.edu/astro104,; make sure you can do the ConcepTests; work with friends and craft your own ConcepTests; stop by to see Marta or me with questions; and come to the REVIEW SESSION on SUNDAY, 2/29, 6:30 in 3425 STERLING.

Any equations that you need will be on the exam!

Topics

Time and space in the Solar System

            Positions on Earth with respect to Sun at different times of day

Celestial Motions

            Daily motion

            Circumpolar constellations

            Solar motion, and reason for seasonal constellations (“Scorpius is a summer constellation”)

            Prograde motion

            Retrograde motion

            Maximum elongations of Mercury and Venus

            Rising and setting of the moon; phases of the moon

Solar and lunar eclipses

Causes of seasons

            Changing altitude of sun

            Affect of angle between solar light and surface

Roles of astronomy in ancient civilizations

Early Greek astronomy

            Thales

            Pythagorus

            Plato

                        Uniform Circular Motion

                        The Fallibility of the Senses

            Aristotle                                                                                                                                 

The Alexandrian School

            Aristarchus and the size scale of the Universe

            Eratosthenes and the size of the Earth

            Hipparchus

                        Observations of the sky

                        The eccentric circle

The Ptolemaic System, and explanation of celestial motions

            Epicycles

            Equant

The Copernican System, and explanation of celestial motions

            Sidereal and synodic periods

Galileo’s Observations

            Surface of moon

            Sunspots and rotation of the Sun

            Stars of the Milky Way

            Jupiter’s moons

            Phases of Venus

Tycho Brahe’s Observations

Kepler’s Three Laws of Planetary Motion

Galileo’s Experiments in Mechanics

            Law of Inertia

            Position, Velocity, Acceleration

            Constant acceleration at Earth’s surface; Tower of Pisa experiment

            Central forces

Newton’s Three Laws of Motion

Newton’s Law of Gravity (through Wednesday, February 25)