Name: ____________________________


                                        Student Number: __________________


                                        Seat Number: _____________________

Answer all four questions.

1. (3 Pts) You are walking east along Grand River Avenue at midnight. You see the Moon directly in front of you just above the horizon. What is the phase of the Moon?
   Third Quarter

   One way to figure this out:  Imagine that your head is the Earth and
   the sun is directly behind you.  This is what is meant by "midnight."
   Further, imagine that you cannot turn your head.  Raise your arms out
   from your sides.  Your left arm points eastward and your right arm 
   towards the west.  The Moon is in the east, which means that it's 
   rising, as everything rises in the east and sets in the west.  Therefore 
   your left arm is pointing at the Moon and you can barely see it out of 
   the corner of your eye.  In other words, the Moon is rising.  This 
   configuration, the Sun behind the Earth and the Moon to the east,
   is third quarter.  
   

2. (5 Pts) Describe the difference between the usual observed motion of the planets and their retrograde motion. Add a drawing if you wish.

   The planets usually appear to move eastward against the stars in the
   background.  Occasionally, they appear to stop and then seem to to
   move backward toward the west for a few weeks or months.  Eventually
   they stop seeming to move west and return to their more typical
   apparent eastward motion.  A drawing such as Fig. 5-12 might help you
   explain/understand this.
   

3. (3 Pts) Which of the following are tests of the Keplerian Model of the Solar System?
   (a) The stars do not show a parallactic shift.
   (b) Predicted the positions of Mars to within the accuracy of Tycho Brahe's observations.
   (c) Predicted the positions of Venus to within the accuracy of Tycho Brahe's observations.
   (d) Predicted the existence of Uranus and Neptune.
   (e) none of these

4. (3 Pts) You are boating on Lake Lansing with a friend. You rent two identical boats, except Boat One has an engine which can deliver four times the force of the engine on Boat Two. You decide to race to the other side. Which boat gets there first? Use Newton's Law of Motion F=ma or a=F/m.
   (a) Boat Two gets there first, as force doesn't matter because there is so little friction in water.
   (b) Boat One gets there first.
   (c) There is not enough information to make a decision.
   (d) They both arrive at the same time.
   (e) It depends on the distance to the other side of the lake.

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   Visions of the Universe

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   Beth Hufnagel's home page, email: hufnage4@pilot.msu.edu
   Bob Stein's home page , email: steinr@pilot.msu.edu