Chapter 4 Flashcards
Which of the following represents a case in which you are not accelerating?
Slamming on the brakes to come to a stop at a stop sign
Driving in a straight line at 60 miles per hour
Driving 60 miles per hour around a curve
Going from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 10 seconds
Driving in a straight line at 60 miles per hour
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?
Both will hit the ground at the same time.
Why are astronauts weightless in the Space Station?
Because the Space Station is constantly in free-fall around the Earth
A net force acting on an object will always cause a change in the object’s _________.
momentum
Suppose you are in an elevator that is traveling upward at constant speed. How does your weight compare to your normal weight on the ground?
it is the same
The planets never travel in a straight line as they orbit the Sun. According to Newton’s second law of motion, this must mean that _________.
a force is acting on the planets
Suppose the Sun were suddenly to shrink in size but that its mass remained the same. According to the law of conservation of angular momentum, what would happen?
The Sun would rotate faster than it does now
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?
The ball’s gravitational potential energy is greatest at the instant when the ball is at its highest point.
The ball’s gravitational potential energy is always the same.
The ball’s gravitational potential energy is greatest at the instant the ball leaves your foot.
The ball’s gravitational potential energy is greatest at the instant it returns to hit the ground.
The ball’s gravitational potential energy is greatest at the instant when the ball is at its highest point.
Suppose you heat an oven to 400°F and boil a pot of water. Which of the following explains why you would be burned by sticking your hand briefly in the pot but not by sticking your hand briefly in the oven?
The water can transfer heat to your arm more quickly than the air.
Which of the following scenarios involves energy that we would typically calculate with Einstein’s formula E=mc 2?
A small amount of the hydrogen in of a nuclear bomb becomes energy as fusion converts the hydrogen to helium.
A rock held above the ground has potential energy. As the rock falls, this potential energy is converted to kinetic energy. Finally, the rock hits the ground and stays there. What has happened to the energy?
The energy goes to producing sound and to heating the ground, rock, and surrounding air.
Suppose that the Sun shrank in size but that its mass remained the same. What would happen to the orbit of the Earth?
Earth’s orbit would be unaffected.
Imagine another solar system, with a star of the same mass as the Sun. Suppose a planet with a mass twice that of Earth (2M Earth) orbits at a distance of 1 AU from the star. What is the orbital period of this planet?
1 year
Imagine another solar system, with a star more massive than the Sun. Suppose a planet with the same mass as Earth orbits at a distance of 1 AU from the star. How would the planet’s year (orbital period) compare to Earth’s year?
The planet’s year would be shorter than Earth’s.
Newton showed that Kepler’s laws are _________.
natural consequences of the law of universal gravitation
Each of the following lists two facts. Which pair of facts can be used with Newton’s version of Kepler’s third law to determine the mass of the Sun?
Earth is 150 million km from the Sun and orbits the Sun in one year.
When space probe Voyager 2 passed by Saturn, its speed increased (but not due to firing its engines). What must have happened?
Saturn must have lost a very tiny bit of its orbital energy
Suppose that a lone asteroid happens to be passing Jupiter on an unbound orbit (well above Jupiter’s atmosphere and far from all of Jupiter’s moons.) Which of the following statements would be true?
The asteroid’s orbit around Jupiter would not change, and it would go out on the same unbound orbit that it came in on.
what describes the origin of ocean tides on Earth?
Tides are caused by the difference in the force of gravity exerted by the Moon across the sphere of the Earth.
At which lunar phase(s) are tides most pronounced (for example, the highest high tides)?
both new and full moons
why are the Moon’s orbital period and rotation period are the same?
The Moon once rotated faster, but tidal friction slowed the rotation period until it matched the orbital period
The difference between speed and velocity is that _________.
velocity also includes a direction
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?
30m/s
Momentum is defined as _________.
mass times velocity
