Astronomy ch 1

At which of the following locations on Earth is the direction we call East not clearly defined?

• The latitude of Greenwich, England

• The coast of the U.S. which borders on the Atlantic Ocean

• The North Pole

• The Equator

• The International Date Line

the number of degrees of arc that your location is north or south of the Earth's equator is called your

• Latitude

• Longitude

• declination

• meridian

• Yankee Quotient

what would you have to change about the Earth to stop our planet from having significantly different seasons?

• The distance from the sun

• its diameter

• the amount of water on its surgace

• The tilt of its axis

• the orbit of the moon around it

the Earth is closest to the sun in which month of the year?

• July

• June

• January

• March

• September

The time it takes for the sun to return to the same place in our sky after the earth has rotated once is called

• a solar day

• a sidereal day

• the ante meridian time

• a year

• an equinox period

why is there a 4-minute difference between the solar day and the sidereal day?

• because the Earth's rotation is variable, due to the pull of the moon

• because the stars slowly change their orientations in the galaxy

• because the earth is going around the sun in the course of a year

• because the earth's axis is tilted by about 23 degrees

• no one knows the reason; we just have to accept the difference as an unsolved mystery

why was the problem of devising a workable yearly calendar so difficult on Earth?

• the Earth's rotation period does not divide evenly into the Earth's period of revolution

• the day is based on what the sun does, but the year iis based on what the Moon does

• the length of the Earth's year varies from year to year

• the calendar only works at greenwich, England, and it gets further and further off as you move eastward in longitude

• Various popes of the catholic church disagreed about how long the day should be

The seven days of the week are named after

• The seven phases of the Moon

• the seven main constellations through which the Moon is seen to pass in the sky

• the seven wandering objects in the sky that were visible to the ancients

• the seven time zones of the roman empire

• seven members of Julius Ceasar's family

If you could see the new moon, at what time of day (roughly) would it rise?

• At sunset

• at about noon

• at midnight

• at sunrise

• a new moon can rise at any time of day, depending on what part of the year we are in

A dashing romanian count asks his sweetheart to marry him. she says she will give her reply when the moon is full. if he asked when the moon was at first quarter, how long will he have to wait?

• about a month

• about a week

• about a day

• about three weeks

• about a year minus a week