THE SOUTHWORTH PLANETARIUM
207-780-4249 www.usm.maine.edu/planet
70 Falmouth Street Portland, Maine 04103
43.6667° N 70.2667° W
Altitude: 10 feet below sea level
Founded January 1970
Julian Date: 24591125.16
2020-2021: XXIII
THE DAILY ASTRONOMER
Friday, October 2, 2020
Week 22 Astronomy-Mythology Quiz
Welcome to the end of another week. Every Friday we post a quiz pertaining to material covered during the previous four days. For the first twenty weeks, we restricted ourselves to astronomy questions. Last week we included mythology questions. Each week until the end of the Remote Planetarium, we will continue to include mythology. Five questions for each day: three astronomical, two mythological. Of course, this week we devoted the time to relativistic physics instead of astronomy. However, as everything is interconnected, it makes little difference.
1. The fundamental postulate of Special Relativity states that the "Speed of light is ___________________"
a. equal to the cube root of the Planck constant divided by pi
b. equal to 186,290 miles per second
c. constant in all inertial reference frames
d. not able to be precisely measured.
2. If you are traveling at 90% light speed for one day, how much time will have elapsed for a stationary observer?
a. one day
b. two and one quarter days
c. five days
d. ten years
3. If you travel at 200% the speed of light for three days, how much time will have elapsed on Earth?
a. three days
b. one year, three months
c. three centuries
d. none of the above. The scenario is impossible.
4. Who was Damocles?
a. the god of profanity
b. a courtier in the palace of Dionysus II
c. a Sicilian shepherd
d. a swordsman who slew the Chimera
5. Where was the "Sword of Damocles" located?
a. half embedded in a rock
a. half embedded in a rock
b. at the bottom of a remote northern lake
c. suspended above Damocles by a single horsehair
d. in the garden of the Hesperides
6. In the equation above, "m" stands for____________.
a. mass
b. momentum
c. magnetic dipole
d. muon neutrino
7. The faster one moves, the more one's mass _______________.
a. decreases
b. increases
c. neither
d. all of the above
8. _____________ of the matter in thermonuclear fusion reactions is converted into energy.
a. Less than 1 percent
b. Approximately ten percent
c. Nearly half
d. Almost all.
9. The arrows that Eros uses to cause people to fall in love are tipped with gold. The arrows that Eros uses to instill disgust in people are tipped with ________.
a. silver
b. lead
c. tin
d. bronze
10. How was Daphne able to escape from Apollo?
a. she was jumped in the Aegean Sea and became a dolphin
b. she climbed an oak tree and turned into an owl
c. she was transformed into a laurel tree
d. she didn't escape from Apollo, but instead loved him and became his wife
11. From the perspective of a stationary observer, a rapidly moving vessel would appear to be ___________________ than it would if the vessel were also at rest.
a. longer
b. shorter
c. taller
d. brighter
12. How fast does a vessel need to travel in order to appear half its length from the perspective of a stationary observer?
a. 50% light speed
b. 75% light speed
c. 86.6% light speed
d. 99.5% light speed
13. If a vessel is moving at light speed, its length is reduced to _________.
a. 1% its rest length
b. 0.1% its rest length
c. 0.00001% its rest length
d. zero
14. Charon conveys the souls of the dead across the River __________.
a. Styx
b. Anduin
c. Tigris
d. Euphrates
15. Why did Hades bind Charon in chains for an entire year?
a. Because Charon allowed Orpheus to enter the Underworld even though Orpheus was still alive.
b. Because Charon refused to allow the Furies to pursue Electra after she died
c. Because he ferried Heracles across the River Styx even though Heracles was still alive
d. Because Charon observed the Eleusinian Mysteries
16. Galileo calculated that light traveled at __________________.
a. 13,000 miles per second
b. 55,600 miles per second
c. 88,800 miles per second
d. none of the above.
17. Danish astronomer Ole Roemer first determined that light traveled at a finite speed by observing ______________.
a. a partial solar eclipse
b. Jupiter's Galilean moons
c. the tilt of Saturn's rings
d. a meteor storm
18. The speed of light in a vacuum is approximately __________________.
a. 186,290 miles per hour
b. 234,000 miles per hour
c. 456,109 miles per hour
d. 186,290 miles per second
19. Constructing the Trojan Horse was __________________ idea.
a. Ares'
b. Odysseus'
c. Apollo's
d. Zeus'
20. Who actually built the Trojan Horse?
a. Epeius
b. Menelaus
c. Hector
d. Achille
ANSWERS
1. The fundamental postulate of Special Relativity states that the "Speed of light is ___________________"
c. constant in all inertial reference frames
A remarkable statement. If you're in a rocket ship moving at 80% the speed of light and you measure a light beam's speed, it will appear to be moving at light speed if you are moving toward it or away from it. No matter how fast an observer travels, the speed of a light beam will remain constant. Consequently, light speed is denoted by the letter "c."
2. If you are traveling at 90% light speed for one day, how much time will have elapsed for a stationary observer?
b. two and one quarter days
Ride along a spacecraft traveling at 90% light speed for one day. After you return to Earth, you'll discover that slightly more than two days have elapsed on Earth. You will literally have experienced less time in motion than those on Earth because of your rapid motion. If you manage to travel even faster, the time dilation effect will be greater.
3. If you travel at 200% the speed of light for three days, how much time will have elapsed on Earth?
d. none of the above. The scenario is impossible.
Sorry, Picard. Relativistic barriers prohibit Warp 2 travel. No vessel can actually travel at light speed, let alone at a higher velocity. Light speed is the maximum attainable velocity: the ultimate speed limit.
4. Who was Damocles?
b. a courtier in the palace of Dionysus II
Damocles was an impoverished courtier who ardently desired to switch lives with King Dionysus II. One day, the King gave him the opportunity to rule in his stead and Damocles quickly wanted to abdicate the throne he was just given.
5. Where was the "Sword of Damocles" located?
c. suspended above Damocles by a single horsehair
After waking up from his nap, Damocles saw a sword hanging point down just above his head. The sword was suspended by a single horse hair and could have fallen onto Damocles at any moment. Dionysus II explained that a King must worry every moment about assassination and so lives constantly under a sword.
6. In the equation above, "m" stands for____________.
a. mass
The equation tells us that energy equals mass multiplied by the speed of light squared.
7. The faster one moves, the more one's mass _______________.
b. increases
Time dilation, mass increase and length contraction are all relativistic effects of high velocity. The faster a vessel travels, the greater its inertial mass becomes. If the ship attains light speed, its mass becomes infinite. For this reason, massive vessels should never be able to travel at light speed.
8. _____________ of the matter in thermonuclear fusion reactions is converted into energy.
a. Less than 1 percent
During thermonuclear fusion reactions, a miniscule amount of matter is transmuted into energy. Of course, stellar cores contain so much material, that these reactions are sufficient to power stars.
9. The arrows that Eros uses to cause people to fall in love are tipped with gold. The arrows that Eros uses to instill disgust in people are tipped with ________.
b. lead
Although Eros (a.k.a. Cupid) is better known for causing people to fall in love by shooting them with gold-tipped arrows, he can also cause people to be repulsed by each other by shooting them with lead-tipped arrows.
10. How was Daphne able to escape from Apollo?
c. she was transformed into a laurel tree
Realizing that Apollo would eventually catch her, Daphne pleaded with her father Peneus to transform her into a tree. She turned into a laurel tree just as Apollo reached her. Forever more, Apollo wore a laurel garland in honor of Daphne.
11. From the perspective of a stationary observer, a rapidly moving vessel would appear to be ___________________ than it would if the vessel were also at rest.
b. shorter
Length contraction is another relativistic effect of motion. A vessel's length is shortened by the perspective of a stationary observer. The faster the motion, the greater the length contraction.
12. How fast does a vessel need to travel in order to appear half its length from the perspective of a stationary observer?
c. 86.6% light speed
In order to appear just half its size a vessel has to travel 86.6% light speed: 161,327 miles per second!! Fast enough to reach the moon in less than two seconds. We haven't yet attained that level of technological sophistication.
13. If a vessel is moving at light speed, its length is reduced to _________.
d. zero
If you travel at light speed, your vessel will become infinitely massive and the length will be reduced to zero. Of course, as we know by now, light speed travel is impossible for massive objects.
14. Charon conveys the souls of the dead across the River __________.
a. Styx
Charon was called the "ferryman" because he brought the souls of the recently departed across the River Styx to the Plains of Asphodel.
15. Why did Hades bind Charon in chains for an entire year?
c. Because he ferried Heracles across the River Styx even though Heracles was still alive
Heracles had to abduct the three-headed hound Cerberus in order to complete this final labor. In order to kidnap Cerberus, Heracles needed to access the Underworld, which he could only do by being ferried across the River Styx. He repeatedly threatened Charon until the ferryman conveyed him across the river.
16. Galileo calculated that light traveled at __________________.
d. none of the above.
Galileo tried to measure the speed of light by placing two assistants with lanterns three miles apart. He couldn't measure the speed using this method and concluded that light speed was either infinite or too high to be measured by his method.
17. Danish astronomer Ole Roemer first determined that light traveled at a finite speed by observing ______________.
b. Jupiter's Galilean moons
Roemer realized, for instance, that the timing between successive eclipses of Io was shorter when Jupiter was closer to Earth than it was farther away, He ascribed this difference to the finite speed of light, as the reflected light of Io needed a longer time to travel to Earth when it was farther away.
18. The speed of light in a vacuum is approximately __________________.
d. 186,290 miles per second
19. Constructing the Trojan Horse was __________________ idea.
b. Odysseus'
The idea of being a hollow wooden horse came to Odysseus in a dream after he slept with the Palladium, a statue honoring Athena.
20. Who actually built the Trojan Horse?
a. Epeius