Problems and concepts to think about before the test

1. Describe each of Newton's 3 laws.

2. A 0.5 kg toy car is pushed with a 40 newton force. What is the car's acceleration?

3. Without calculating anything, what would be the effect (in problem 2) of increasing the mass of the car?

4. Give an example of Newton's 1st law in action.

5. Give an example of Newton's 3rd law in action.

6. Newton's "big book", what I claim is the most important non-religious book of all time is _____ and was published in _____.

7. What things are worth remembering about the so-called Scientific Revolution?

8.  Have a basic idea of historical chronology between these fellows:  Newton, Copernicus, Ptolemy, Galileo.  And roughly, why their contributions are important.

9.  What are epicycles and why are they important in the history of science?

10.  What is precession (wobbling) and why is it important in the history of science?

11.  Distinguish between weight and mass.

12.  What is the SI unit of force?  What is the English unit of force?

13.  How does weight depend on gravitational acceleration?

14.  Why do objects in freefall fall with the same acceleration?  Give one of the arguments that appeals to you.



Gravitation problems:

1.  Explain the meaning of "inverse square law".

2.  Discuss each of Kepler's 3 laws.

3.  At what point in its orbit is the Earth closest to the Sun?

4.  At what point in its orbit is the Earth moving fastest?

5.  What causes seasons?

6.  What is a semi-major axis of orbit (a)?

7.  What is an Astronomical Unit (AU)?

8.  Consider Jupiter.  It's orbit is 5 AU in size (roughly).  How long should it take Jupiter to orbit the Sun once?  Show how this calculation would be done.

9.  What is the period of Earth's orbit around the Sun?

10.  What is the size of Earth's orbit (in AU)?

11.  When you stand on the Earth's surface, you experience your "normal" Earth weight.  What would happen to your Earth weight if you were one Earth radius above the surface?  (That's twice as far from the center as simply standing on the surface.)

12.  What does gravitational force between 2 objects depend on?

General topics for exam 1.  Be sure to review all assigned homework, blog posts and your notes.

You are permitted to have a sheet of notes for this test.  I will NOT give equations.

pseudoscience
SI units (m, kg, s) - meanings, definitions
velocity
acceleration
related problems using the formulas
speed of light (c)
gravitational acceleration (g)
average vs. instantaneous velocity
the basics of flight
freefall problems
Newton's 3 laws
Kepler's 3 laws
inverse square law / Newton's law of universal gravitation