Test 2 Flashcards
3 parts of a scientific measurment
best guess, tolerance, instrument limiting error
A non-trivial systematic error
an inherent limitation in the equipment or the procedure of an experiment
Accuracy
how close you are to the true value of your measurement
Precision
how many significant figures you can legitimately write in your measurement
It is necessary but not…
…sufficient to be precise in order to be accurate
astronomical unit
the average distance between the Sun and the Earth
light-year
the distance light travels in the vacuum of space over the period of one year
stellar parallax
trigonometric parallax, it is quite
accurate, but limited to “close in” stars
Henrietta Leavitt
discovered relationship between a cepheid star’s period and intrinsic brightness
Cepheid variable stars
astronomical distance measuring techniques that utilize light to determine distances relatively precisely.
astronomical unit (au), light-year (ly), parsec (pc)
Cosmic distance units
freely falling objects,
objects falling under the influence of the force
of gravity only
acceleration
the time rate of change of an object’s velocity
if an acceleration is going to be constant…
…direction must not change, and its speed must change linearly
Newton’s Second Law of Motion
when a net external force ⃗Fnet , ext acts on an object, the object accelerates (⃗a), its velocity changes.
The magnitude of this force is proportional to the
product of the two masses,…
…and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between their centers
Newton’s Law of Gravity
There exists a universally attractive force between any 2 masses
Third Law of Motion
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
An action, or reaction, is a force impressed on some object.
Spring Tides
when tides are diminished
Neap tides
When tides are diminsihed
Solar system planets
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and pluto
constellation
area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object
Kepler’s First Law of Planetary Motion
the orbit of a planet is an ellipse, with the Sun at one of the ellipse’s two foci
Kepler’s Second Law of Planetary Motion
a line segment joining a planet and the Sun
sweeps out equal areas during equal
intervals of time.
Kepler’s Third Law of Planetary Motion
the square of the orbital period of a planet is
directly proportional to the cube of the semi-
major axis of its orbit.
12 to 18 miles
how far away the moon is
78% Nitrogen (N2), 21% Oxygen (O2), .93% Argon (Ar), and .04% Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
Four primary gasses that make up earth’s atmosphere
Troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere
Four layers of earth’s atmosphere
Weather occurs in…
…The troposphere
When a storm cloud reaches the tropopause it…
…reverse ameliorates
ozone and oxygen
Protect us from uv radiation in the stratosphere
reflects radio waves up to a frequency of 30
million Hertz (30 MHz)
ionosphere
meteoroids burn up in the…
…mesosphere
Catches charged particles in the solar winds.
thermosphere
the atmosphere, water (H2O, in all three phases), the Sun, the rotation of the Earth, volcanic activity, biological activity
Six main ingriedients of earth’s weather
