Short Answers Review
Short Answers
Answer Section
SHORT ANSWER
1. ANS:
Both are categories of the planets of our solar system. Terrestrial planets are the four planets close to the Sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. They have solid, rocky surfaces and are smaller. Gas giant planets are farther from the Sun: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. They are more gaseous, lack a solid surface, and are larger.
2. ANS:
Both describe positions in a planet’s orbit around the Sun. When a planet is farthest away from the Sun, it is at aphelion. When it is closest, it is at perihelion.
3. ANS:
Both classify the brightness of stars. Apparent magnitude is how bright a star appears to be. Absolute magnitude takes into account differing distances and measures brightness at a distance of 10 parsecs.
4. ANS:
Both are atomic reactions that produce energy. Fusion is the combining of lightweight nuclei into heavier nuclei, while fission is the process of splitting heavy atomic nuclei into smaller, lighter atomic nuclei.
5. ANS:
Both are related to energy. Heat is the transfer of energy that occurs because of a difference in temperature. Temperature is the measurement of how rapidly or slowly molecules move around.
6. ANS:
Both are related to water vapor in air. Humidity is the amount of water vapor in air. Relative humidity is the ratio of the amount of water vapor in air to how much water vapor that volume of air can hold.
7. ANS:
Both are ways in which energy is transferred. Conduction is energy transfer by the collision of molecules. Convection is energy transfer by the flow of a heated substance, such as water or air.
8. ANS:
Both refer to the conditions of the atmosphere. However, weather refers to current atmospheric conditions, while climate refers to long-term weather patterns for an area.
9. ANS:
Both involve the movement of weather systems. However, an air mass is a large body of air that takes on the characteristics of the area over which it forms, while a front is a narrow region separating two air masses of different densities.
10. ANS:
Both are climates that occur in small areas. A microclimate is a localized climate that differs from the main regional climate. A heat island is a type of microclimate wherein a city is warmer than surrounding rural areas.
11. ANS:
Both involve the heating of Earth. The greenhouse effect is the natural heating of Earth’s surface caused by atmospheric gases, while global warming is the abnormal rise in global temperatures due to the increased concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
12. ANS:
Both occur just offshore. The longshore bar is a sandbar that forms in front of most beaches. The longshore current is a current that flows parallel to the shore. Water from incoming breakers spills over the longshore bar and produces the longshore current.
13. ANS:
Both are scales that rank major storms. The Fujita tornado intensity scale ranks tornadoes according to their path of destruction, wind speed, and duration. The Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale ranks hurricanes according to wind speed, air pressure in the center, and potential for property damage.
14. ANS:
If Earth were not tilted on its axis, there would be no seasonal changes. The climate at any given location would be much the same year-round because neither hemisphere would lean more or less toward the Sun any time of the year.
15. ANS:
The phases, in order from full moon would be: full moon, waning gibbous, third quarter, waning crescent, new moon, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous.
16. ANS:
An ellipse is an oval shape that is centered on two foci. A circle is a special ellipse where the distance between the two foci is zero. An elliptical orbit is not at a constant distance from the Sun as a circular orbit would be.
17. ANS:
Mars;
18. ANS:
The old stars are in the halo and bulge. The young stars are in the spiral arms of the disk, where the interstellar gas and dust are concentrated.
19. ANS:
The three methods of energy transfer are conduction, convection, and radiation.
20. ANS:
Temperature decreases with altitude in the troposphere. In the stratosphere, temperature begins to increase with altitude. In the mesosphere, temperature begins to decrease again. Then between the mesosphere and thermosphere, temperature starts to increase with altitude.
21. ANS:
The stratosphere contains concentrated ozone. Ozone easily absorbs ultraviolet radiation from the Sun. Thus, temperature increases in the stratosphere.
22. ANS:
(1) There is an abundance of moisture in the lower levels of the atmosphere. (2) Some mechanism lifts the air so the moisture can condense into cloud droplets. This releases latent heat that allows the cloud to keep growing. (3) The part of the atmosphere that the cloud grows through must continue to cool off with height so that the growing cloud can stay warmer than the surrounding air.
23. ANS:
No, because the energy for tropical cyclones comes from warm, tropical oceans. The desert would be warm but lack moisture. Deserts are also high-pressure areas of sinking air, while cyclones are low-pressure areas of rising air.
24. ANS:
A microclimate is a localized climate that differs from the main regional climate around it. Microclimates include areas that have lake-effect snow, areas at the tops of mountains, and heat islands.
25. ANS:
These could include solar activity, changes in Earth’s orbit or the tilt of its axis, and volcanic eruptions.