Chan-Tresa Z. Carr
AST-101-OL
01 June 10
Written Assignment 1
This assignment has a series of four (4) questions that call for short essay answers. The questions are designed to help you determine your grasp of how astronomers use basic math skills in their work and how they measure astronomical distances. Use no more than one paragraph to complete each answer.
1.Answer the following questions regarding measurement and distance.
A. Why would the English system of units be more useful if a foot contained 10 inches? Use a math example and write out a clear reason. ANSWER: I don’t truly understand this question but I can say that of the pictures we see with the field of view all the images are shown by a factor of 100. Therefore 10 is easier to be multiplied or divided by 10 rather than 12. And easter to put into scientific notation such as 380,000 as 3.8 X 105. P.4
B. Why are some distances measured in light-years and some in astronomical units? Include a definition of each of these distance measurements. ANSWER: Light year (ly) is the distance that light travels in one year, roughly 1013 km or 63,000 AU. Astronomical unit (AU) is the average distance from Earth to the sun; 1.53108km, or 933106 mi. Scientist had to come up with this unit of light years as a unit of measurement because the distance was just too large. P. 5,6
C. Answer Review Questions 2 and 4, and Problems 2 and 4 on page 21 (Chapter 2) of the Seeds textbook. Include all computations for the problems.
2.Answer the following questions regarding magnitude.
A.Discuss stellar magnitude. Include in your answer the definition of the term and the difference between absolute and apparent magnitudes. ANSWER: The definitions of both apparent and absolute magnitudes are apparent visual magnitude is the brightness of a star as seen by human eyes on Earth. Absolute visual magnitude is the intrinsic brightness of a star. The apparent visual magnitude the star would have if it were 10 pc away....