Exam 4: Making Sense of the Universe: Understanding Motion, Energy, and Gravity

Suppose you drop a 10-pound weight and a 5-pound weight on the Moon, both from the same height at the same time. What will happen?

Suppose that the Sun shrank in size but that its mass remained the same. What would happen to the orbit of the Earth?

Imagine a Star Wars type spaceship in orbit around a planet. Its engine suffers a severe malfunction, and explodes. What is the most physically realistic depiction of this event?

If a gas cloud shrinks its gravitational potential energy is converted into

Under what conditions is an object weightless?

Speed and velocity are the same thing.

How does a rocket launch upwards? Choose the statement that best describes why a rocket goes up.

Imagine another solar system, with a star of the same mass as the Sun. Suppose a planet with a mass twice that of Earth (2MEₐᵣth) orbits at a distance of 1 AU from the star. What is the orbital period of this planet?

In the formula E=mc², what does E represent?

The escape velocity from Earth is greater for larger rockets than for small ones.

Suppose you kick a soccer ball straight up to a height of 10 meters. Which of the following is true about the gravitational potential energy of the ball during its flight?

Newton showed that Kepler's laws are ________.

If I drop a golf ball and a bowling ball simultaneously from same height above the ground, what will happen? Neglect the effects of wind or air resistance.

The acceleration of gravity on Earth is approximately 10 m/s² (more precisely, 9.8 m/s²). If you drop a rock from a tall building, about how fast will it be falling after 3 seconds?

If a gas cloud shrinks, it

Which of the following best explains why the Moon's orbital period and rotation period are the same?

Kepler deduced his laws of planetary motion once Newton had published his universal law of gravitation.

Suppose you lived on the Moon. Which of the following would be true?

Which of the following best describes the origin of ocean tides on Earth?

If you double the mass of fusion material in a hydrogen bomb, you quadruple the amount of energy generated.