Approximately how fast is a person located at the Earth's equator traveling due to the rotation of the Earth?
A) 1,700 km/hr
B) 17 km/hr
C) 17,000 km/hr
D) 170 km/hr
E) not moving at all
Question 2Gasoline is useful in cars because it has
A) chemical potential energy.
B) electrical potential energy.
C) kinetic energy.
D) gravitational potential energy.
E) radiative energy.
Question 3On the scale of the cosmic calendar, in which the history of the universe is compressed to 1 year, how long has human civilization (i.e., since ancient Egypt) existed?
A) a few seconds
B) about a month
C) less than a millionth of a second
D) a few hours
E) about half the year
Question 4How many galaxies are there in the observable universe?
A) about as many as the number of stars we see in the sky with our naked eyes
B) infinity
C) roughly a thousand times more than the number of stars in our galaxy
D) roughly (within a factor of 10 ) the same as the number of stars in our galaxy
E) about as many as the number of grains of sand on all the beaches on Earth
Question 5Which of the following best describes the Milky Way Galaxy?
A) a spiral galaxy with a disk about 100,000 light-years in diameter and containing between 100 billion and 1 trillion stars
B) a spherically shaped collection of stars including our solar system and about a dozen other solar systems, stretching about 4 light-years in diameter
C) a spherically shaped collection of about 1 million stars that is about 100 light-years in diameter
D) a spiral galaxy with a disk about a billion kilometers in diameter and containing between 100 million and 1 billion stars
E) a spiral galaxy with a disk about 100,000 light-years in diameter and containing about 100,000 stars