Sample Quiz Questions for the First Astronomy Quiz

If you have not reviewed the Background Topics page yet, go back!  Only proceed to try to answer these questions after you have reviewed the background topics page, and you think that you understand all of the topics listed there.  This may require looking some stuff up on the web or in a text book.

Note - these questions aren't the only ones that you may see on the first quiz.  These questions are examples of quiz questions that I will include on material that I think that you should already know, or should know by the end of the first week of class.  The quiz will include questions like these plus questions on material that I lecture about during normal class hours.

1.  List the planets in order from the Sun.  Spelling counts.

2.  Define the following:

A. Galaxy               B. Nucleus

C. Proton                D.  Neutron

E. Electron               F. Isotope

G. Ion                       H. Element

I. Molecule                J. Universe

3.  a)  Sketch a circle and label its radius, diameter, and circumference.

     b)  Sketch what an ellipse and a parabola look like.

4.  Sketch the following atoms, and list how many protons and neutrons are in the nucleus of each, and how many electrons each atom has:

a)    ⁴He                             b)    ¹⁴C                c)    ¹⁷O⁺⁺ 

(note double positive charge means that the oxygen ion is missing two electrons).

5.  Sketch what a simple molecule looks like.

6.  Complete the following Table:

7.  List the five most common elements in nature and give their atomic numbers.

8.  Give the following powers of ten;

a)  10⁵ x 10³ =             b) 10^-3 x 10² =             c) 10⁷ /10² =       d)10³ / 10^-5  = 

9.  What determines the length of the day, month, and year?

10.  List the seven continents (spelling counts).

11. What is electricity?

12.What does temperature measure?

13. If you drive at 50 miles per hour for three hours, how far will you travel?

14.  If you drop a small rock and a large coconut off of your desk at the same time, which will hit the ground first?

15.  What are the three states of matter?  What are the atoms or molecules doing in each of them?

16.  When you get a bacteria infection, what kind of cells are attacking your body?  What kind of cells are defending your body?

Write the answers down, and show them to the tutor or me, and if you do well on these questions, then you are ready to take your first astronomy quiz!  If you are confident that you know all of the answers to these sample questions, then you do not need to show these answers to me.