Astronomy Review

The Moon, Tides, and Gravitation

• What is the mean distance of Earth to the moon?

• Is the moon always the same distance to Earth?

• How do we know with precision the distance between Earth and the moon?

• Why does the moon have no atmosphere?

• How is the moon’s weak gravitational field related to the moon’s escape velocity?

• What would be the advantage of having a rocket base on the moon?

• Is there a dark side of the moon?

• Why is there one side of the moon that we never see?

• True or false• The moon always shines on half of the moon?

• When does a full moon set?

• At what time does a first quarter moon rise?

• When does a new moon set?

• If you are a two hundred pound person, how much will you weigh on the moon?

• If you live on the moon, would you see Earth going through phases?

• When the moon is a new moon as seen from Earth, what phase would Earth be in as seen from the moon?

• What characteristic of the moon allows us to study the history of impacts (from asteroids, comets, and meteors) in the early solar system?

• How can we use the discovery of water on the moon to study the origin of water on Earth?

• What makes a spring tide?

• What characterizes a neap tide?

• Which is a higher tide, a spring tide or a neap tide?

• Why is the spring tide higher than the neap tide?

• Where does one piece of evidence that the Earth’s rotation is slowing come from?

• Why is Earth’s rotation slowing?

• When we say that a planet or moon is tidally locked, what does that mean?

• What can a planet’s escape velocity tell us about the mass of a planet?

• What formula characterizes Newton’s second law?

• Which of Newton’s laws explains why there is an asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter?

• Assuming ideal conditions, who falls at a faster rate, an elephant or an ant?

• Why do they fall at the same rate?