THE SOUTHWORTH PLANETARIUM
207-780-4249 www.usm.maine.edu/planet
70 Falmouth Street Portland, Maine 04103
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Altitude: 10 feet below sea level
Founded January 1970
Julian Date: 24591153.16
2020-2021: XXXVI
THE DAILY ASTRONOMER
Friday, October 30, 2020
Remote Planetarium 114: Week 25 Astronomy/Mythology Quiz
This week we delved deeper into Relativity and then broadened our perspective on the Universe. Mythologically, we encountered the Minotaur, immortal horses and the ill-fated young hunter Actaeon. All of this information provided us with ample material for this week's quiz. Enjoy!
We will see you on Monday.
1. How can particles travel faster than light?
a. they can't
b. some particles will move faster than the phase velocity of light through a given medium, such as water
c. particles in the Andromeda Galaxy can travel faster than light
d. particles can only move faster than red light, not blue light
2. The _______________ of a medium determines the phase velocity of light through that medium.
a. refractive index
b. density
c. chemical composition
d. all of the above
3. The Fundamental Theorem of Astrophysics states that _____________.
a. all physical phenomena can be modeled mathematically
b. light speed is constant in all inertial reference frames
c. the laws of physics that govern phenomena on Earth apply throughout the Universe
d. none of the above
4. How did Poseidon punish King Minos for not sacrificing the beautiful white bull to him?
a. he commanded the bull to eat King Minos
b. he commanded the bull to slay his children
c. he cast a spell that transformed the bull into a chicken
d. he cast a spell on the queen that caused her to lust after the bull
5. How many young Athenians were sent to Crete each year as a tribute?
a. 3
b. 11
c. 14
d. 25
6. Why is warp speed not possible?
a. no vessel can travel at light speed because at that speed the vessel's mass would become infinite
b. no vessel can travel at light speed because the speed would actually travel backward through time
c. no vessel can travel at light speed because such motion would violate the traffic laws in the Delta Quadrant
d. none of the above
7. In 2011, CERN scientists announced that they discovered a neutrino traveling faster than light speed. Did that discovery cause scientists to modify Special Relativity?
a. Yes. It is now known that neutrinos under certain conditions can travel at 1.00003c
b. Yes. It is now known that accelerated particles can exceed light speed for brief periods
c. Yes. It is now known that the light speed barrier does not apply to elementary particles
d. No. The "detection" of the faster-than-light neutrino was the result of an error
8. How long did the "inflationary epoch" last?
a. less than a nanosecond
b. three minutes
c. three years
d. 300,000 years
9. Why did Artemis transform Actaeon into an animal?
a. he refused to sacrifice a bull to her
b. he saw her bathing
c. he shot a stag sacred to Artemis
d. he was chasing a nymph he encountered in the forest
10. Artemis turned Actaeon into a ________.
a. stag
b. bear
c. nightingale
d. fox
11. Superclusters are separated by vast empty regions called ___________.
a. gulfs
b. voids
c. chasms
d. filaments
12. The Universe contains approximately _____________ Superclusters.
a. 100
b. 10,000
c. 1,000,000
d. 10,000,000
13. Superclusters tend to be distributed over ___________________ of space.
a. dozens of light years
b. hundreds of light years
c.hundreds of thousands of light years
d. millions of light years
14. __________, the ________ wind, sired the horses Xanthus and Balius.
a. Boreas; north
b. Notus; south
c. Zephyrus; west
d. Eurus; sea
15. Why did the Furies deprive Xanthus of speech?
a. he ate Diomedes
b. he spoke to Achilles of the prophecy pertaining to the warrior's death
c. he allowed Patroclus to die in battle
d. he knew the Trojan Horse contained Greek soldiers and the Furies wanted to be sure he couldn;t warn the Trojans.
ANSWERS
1. How can particles travel faster than light?
b. some particles will move faster than the phase velocity of light through a given medium, such as water.
While nothing can travel faster than light through a vacuum, some particles can surpass light speed through another medium, such as water. Such particles emit a blue light called Cherenov radiation.
2. The _______________ of a medium determines the phase velocity of light through that medium.
a. refractive index
The equation is n = c/v
where n = refractive medium; c = speed of light in a vacuum; and v = phase velocity of light. We should mention that this index varies with wavelength, which explains chromatic aberration in lenses.
The refractive index of glass varies with wavelength, so the different colors of light are bent at different angles, hence the chromatic aberration one notices in lenses.
3. The Fundamental Theorem of Astrophysics states that _____________.
c. the laws of physics that govern phenomena on Earth apply throughout the Universe
Travel anywhere in the Universe and the physical laws will be the same. Drop a ball on a planet somewhere in the Coma Supercluster and its descent will be determined by the same physical laws that apply to a ball dropped on Earth.
4. How did Poseidon punish King Minos for not sacrificing the beautiful white bull to him?
d. he cast a spell on the queen that caused her to lust after the bull
The Queen Pasiphae developed an intense desire for the bull. She persuaded Daedalus to make her a cow suit. Once enclosed in that suit, she seduced the bull and they conceived the Minotaur.
5. How many young Athenians were sent to Crete each year as a tribute?
c. 14
In order to sustain the peace following a Cretan victory over Athens, the Athenian king Aegeus was required to send fourteen Athenian youths to Crete each year. These fourteen young people -seven boys and seven girls- were sent into the labyrinth to be devoured by the Minotaur.
6. Why is warp speed not possible?
a. no vessel can travel at light speed because at that speed, the vessel's mass would become infinite
The faster a ship moves, the greater its inertial mass becomes. At light speed, a vessel's mass would become infinite. Something infinitely massive would require an infinite amount of energy to sustain its motion.
7. In 2011, CERN scientists announced that they discovered a neutrino traveling faster than light speed. Did that discovery cause scientists to modify Special Relativity?
d. No. The "detection" of the faster-than-light neutrino was the result of an error.
The announcement excited so many of us wanna-be causality violators. However, as it turned out, the neutrinos were not moving faster than light. Instead, the timing was off due to a loose fiber optic cable.
8. How long did the "inflationary epoch" last?
a. less than a nanosecond
The Universe experienced a rapid inflation during the time period between 10^-36 and 10^-33 seconds after the Big Bang. In that brief moment, the cosmos expanded by at least a factor of 10^26 in all three dimensions.
9. Why did Artemis transform Actaeon into an animal?
b. he saw her bathing
Poor Actaeon. He was wandering through the forest and just happened to encounter Artemis bathing around a gathering of nymphs. Horrified at having anybody see her naked, Artemis turned him into an animal and deprived him of speech.
10. Artemis turned Actaeon into a ________.
a. stag
As soon as Actaeon saw Artemis bathing, she turned him into a stag. Soon thereafter, he was devoured by his own hunting dogs.
11. Superclusters are separated by vast empty regions called ___________.
b. voids
Voids are vast regions containing very little material, either no galaxies or very few. Some of the closest voids to the Virgo Supercluster are the Canis Major Void, the Sculptor Void, and the Microscopium Void. Voids generally have diameters between 10 - 100 Megaparsecs, though some can be smaller and others larger.
12. The Universe contains approximately _____________ Superclusters.
d. 10,000,000
Our vast Virgo Supercluster is certainly not the only one.
13. Superclusters tend to be distributed over ___________________ of space.
d. millions of light years
Superclusters contain thousands upon thousands of galaxies distributed over millions of light years of space. This much space is required to accommodate such an immense amount of material.
14. __________, the ________ wind, sired the horses Xanthus and Balius.
c. Zephyrus; west
The "gentle" west wind Zephyrus sired the immortal horses Xanthus and Balius on the Harpy Podarge, whose name literally means "fleet-footed." Consequently, both horses moved quite swiftly.
15. Why did the Furies deprive Xanthus of speech?
b. he spoke to Achilles of the prophecy pertaining to the warrior's death
The Furies generally only pursued and tormented murderers. In this case, they decided to punish the prophetic horse Xanthus for disclosing the prophecy about Achilles' imminent death. Achilles screamed at the Furies to restore his horse's speech for the warrior already knew about the prophecy, but to no avail.
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