Discussion Questions

Questions From 9th Edition Astronomy Today – Directly from the etext – for your utilization if you have purchased or access to earlier editions.

Chapter 3 –

Discussion Questions –

2. What is the relationship between wavelength, wave frequency, and of a wave velocity?

6. What’s so special about c?

11.  What do radio waves, infrared radiation, visible light, ultraviolet radiation, X-rays, and gamma rays have in common? How do they differ?

Problems –

A sound wave moving through water has a frequency of 256 Hz and a wavelength of 5.77 m. What is the speed of the wave?

What is the wavelength of a 100-MHz (“FM 100”) radio signal?

Two otherwise identical objects have temperatures of 300 K and 1500 K, respectively. Which one radiates more energy, and by what factor does its emission exceed the emission of the other?

At what velocity and in what direction would a spacecraft have to be moving for a radio station on Earth transmitting at 100 MHz to be picked up by a radio tuned to 99.9 MHz?

Radiation from the nearby star Alpha Centauri is observed to be reduced in wavelength (after correction for Earth’s orbital motion) by a factor of 0.999933. What is the recession velocity of Alpha Centauri relative to the Sun?