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Space and Time Worksheet Revised KEY

ASTR 101

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39 views2 pages

Space and Time Worksheet Revised KEY

ASTR 101

Uploaded by

aegomez115
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Space and Time worksheet

Complete the following questions using your lecture notes and the textbook. You must complete the entire
worksheet for full credit, but your answers do not need to be correct. Once you have completed and submitted
your worksheet, I will send you the link to the worksheet answers so you can correct any mistakes. Please write or
type your long answers on a separate sheet or document. Leave space for diagrams if the questions ask for them.

1. Is the universe in space or is space in the universe?


From the textbook: “…the universe is not contained within a region of space. Rather, space is in the
universe…”
2. What is a Cepheid variable star useful for?
Measuring distance, even out to nearby galaxies
3. Which depends on distance, a star’s brightness or its luminosity?
A star’s brightness decreases with distance. It’s luminosity is a characteristic of the star itself.
4. What is the approximate age of the universe?
Fourteen billion years
5. Judging by the cosmic background radiation, what is the average temperature of the universe today?
3 Kelvin
6. According to cosmic inflation theory, how long did it take for the universe to increase its size
by a factor of 1030?
10-36 second (an extraordinarily tiny fraction of a second)
7. At what point did the universe’s temperature even out?
The universe’s temperature became very close to uniform before inflation.
8. What did inflation do to the quantum fluctuations found within the early universe?
Inflation spread the quantum fluctuations over much larger distances, or as the textbook says, it
‘magnified’ them.
9. What would happen to the curvature of a balloon if it could be inflated to the size of the Sun?
The balloon’s surface would appear to be extremely flat.
10. How many dimensions are there in spacetime?
Four (three spatial dimensions and one temporal dimension)
11. In what year did Einstein publish his general theory of relativity?
1915
12. Can an accelerated frame of reference be distinguished from a gravitational field?
Not by local observations
13. You release a ball while standing on the floor of an accelerating spaceship. What happens to the ball?
From the reference frame of the spaceship, the ball accelerates toward the floor in a manner equivalent
to free fall.
14. What did general relativity predict about the orbit of Mercury?
An additional precession of the long axis of Mercury’s orbit, which had been a mystery until general
relativity explained why it does that
15. What happens to starlight as it passes close to the Sun?
Its path bends
16. If you walk at 1 km/h down the aisle toward the front of a train that is moving forward at 60 km/h, what is
your speed relative to the ground?
61 km/h
17. In the preceding question, is your approximate speed relative to the Sun as you walk down the aisle of the
train changed slightly or a lot? (Note that Earth’s orbital speed is 107,000 km/h.)
Slightly
18. If you are within a spaceship moving at 99% the speed of light, what do you notice about the onboard
clocks? What if you were observing the clocks from a stationary position outside the spaceship?
From within the spaceship, you are moving with the onboard clocks, so they seem to work just like
normal. Viewed by an external stationary observer, they appear to be slowed down.

PHSC 112
Allan Hancock College
19. Why is the essence of a coffee table best captured with a video camera, rather than with a still camera?
Because, in addition to its spatial dimensions, the coffee table continues through time as well.
20. Does it necessarily take a minimum of 25,000 years to travel a distance of 25,000 light-years?
To a stationary observer, yes, because nothing can travel faster than light. But if astronauts could travel at
large fractions of the speed of light, the time would not be as long to them!
21. What type of matter is visible?
Ordinary matter, made of particles such as protons, neutrons, and electrons
22. If we can’t see dark matter, how do we know it is there?
The effects of its gravity on things we can see
23. Is dark matter found mostly inside the visible part of a galaxy or outside the visible part of a galaxy?
Dark matter is spread out much farther than the ordinary matter of a galaxy, so more of it is outside than
inside, but it occupies both the inside and outside regions.
24. The closer a planet is to the Sun, the faster it orbits. Is it also true that the closer a star is to the center of
the galaxy, the faster it orbits?
Nope
25. In a huge cloud of ordinary matter and dark matter, the two are uniformly mixed together. Over time, the
ordinary matter becomes concentrated toward the center of this cloud. Why?
Dark matter cannot release thermal energy by emitting light, but ordinary matter can. By radiating
energy, ordinary matter can collapse further.
26. Did Einstein first believe that the universe was static or dynamic?
Static (in this context, neither expanding nor contracting)
27. What was Einstein’s cosmological constant?
A term that Einstein introduced into the equations of general relativity to add a push outward to
counteract the effect of gravity pulling inward
28. What did Einstein refer to as the greatest blunder of his life?
Failing to predict the expansion of the universe
29. According to recent evidence, how long ago did the expansion of the universe start accelerating?
About 7.5 billion years ago
30. What does WMAP stand for?
The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, a spacecraft that measured the cosmic microwave
background radiation with very good resolution
31. What is probably the major constituent of our universe?
Dark energy
32. Which is more abundant: dark matter or ordinary matter?
Dark matter
33. According to the heat death scenario, about how long will it take for the black holes of the universe to
evaporate?
10150 years!
34. What does the Big Rip scenario assume about dark energy?
This scenario results from an assumption that dark energy may grow stronger over time.
35. What scenario for the fate of the universe proposes that cosmic inflation is not a one-time event?
Eternal inflation

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Allan Hancock College

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