Study Guide – 611/612: Astronomy Test

 611 - Thursday 13th December - Period 3 and break

 612 - Friday 14th December - Period 6 and lunch

Instructions

 You will be tested on material covered in the PowerPoints uploaded to the website
 Read through and review the example exam questions for a good idea of what will be on
the test

Things you must be able to do (Not completely exhaustive)

 Describe evidence supporting a spherical (not flat) Earth

 Explain/speculate how Eratosthenes calculated the circumference of the Earth
 Remember the three guidelines for defining a planet from the I.A.U
o Apply these to celestial bodies in order to define them/discard them as planets (e.g
Earth passes all three but Pluto fails one)
o Explain how a dwarf planet is defined via the first two
o Critique these guidelines (they’re not entirely objective)
 Discuss whether the Earth is a ‘perfect sphere’, and why many would say it isn’t
 Describe and explain the solar system models of Ptolemy, Copernicus and Tycho Brahe
o Explain where they were correct and wrong (e.g epicycles, perfectly circular orbits)
o Compare and contrast them
o Understand the difference between Geocentrism and Heliocentrism
o Describe how Kepler ‘tidied up’ the Copernican model
 Describe/Explain Kepler’s three laws
 Define a moon, and understand how this is not an objective definition, because (for
example):
o They vary in geological activity
o Some planets have none, some have tens and tens
o Asteroids can have moons, etc…
 Have an idea of the Galilean moons/Pluto/Charon/Ceres and how they cause problems in
our definition of a planet/moon
 Explain the synodic and sidereal month of the Moon
 Explain how Aristarchus calculated the size of the mono (in terms of proportion)
 Explain the phases of the moon
 Describe lunar and solar eclipses, with respect to the phases of the moon
 Explain how Aristarchus estimated the distance to the Sun