Oh, good god

[oxfordtweed]

I'm going through folders, and I seem to have come across some old notes from school. My astronomy gave me a good laugh, if only because how vague it tended to be (but I must have learned something from it, because it took it for two years, and passed with more than 100% average both years).


I. Newton’s Laws of Motion
   A. An Item in motions remains in motion in a straight line, unless acted upon by another force.
   B. An item at rest stays at rest, unless acted upon by another force.
   C. The more force behind an object, the faster it travels.
   D. F=ma
      i. Force=mass x acceleration
      ii. Resistance to motion
   E. The closer a planet is to the sun, the more gravitational pull.
      i. A planet moves faster when closer to sun.
   F. Planets travel in elliptical paths to stay in orbit
      i. If in a circular orbit, a planet would either
         1. Fly into space
         2. Hit the sun
II. Planets
   A. Mercury
      i. Closest
   B. Venus
      i. 25,000,000 miles from us at closest.
      ii. One rotation in a year
   C. Earth
      i. As the earth rotates, the axis wants to right it self
         1. 26,000 years to complete one rotation of the axis
         2. 22 ½ and 24 ½ tilt. Average is 23 ½ degrees.
         3. If there were more of a tilt, the seasons would be more severe.
         4. Less tilt, the seasons would be less dramatic
         5. No tilt – no seasons
      ii. Elliptical Orbit
         1. Aphelion – Furthest from the Sun - July
         2. Perihelion – Closest to the Sun - January
      iii. Atmosphere
         1. Moisture
         2. Dust
         3. All sorts of junk
         4. Distorts images when looking through a telescope
            a. Worse on the horizon, because you’re looking through more junk
            b. Scatters light
   D. Mars
      i. 35,000,000 miles from us at closest.
   E. Jupiter
      i. Biggest
      ii. As much mass as every thing sans sun in the system
   F. Pluto
      i. Half the size of the moon
      ii. Crosses orbit with Neptune
III. Moon
   A. Rise to rise = 24 hr, 50 min
      i. Moon pulls water and atmosphere when it is highest in the sky
         1. High tide – the ocean is higher
         2. 2 high tides, and two low tides every 24 hr, 50min – Semidiurnal
         3. Amphidromic points – places on the planet where there is little to no tide change
   B. 1/6 the size of earth
   C. Orbits the earth once a month
      i. Apogee – point where the moon is furthest from the Earth
      ii. Perigee – point where earth is closet to the Earth
   D. Harvest Moon
      i. First Full moon after September 21st
      ii. Only orange depending on angle
   E. Hunter’s Moon
      i. Second Full Moon after September 21st
IV. Sun
   A. Rotates once in 28 days
V. Solar System
   A. Clouds of dust and gas in space.
      i. If there is enough stuff in a small enough volume, gravity will pull the stuff into a small mass. After time, lots and lots of time, planets and stuff will form.
      ii. Material collapsing toward the centre.
      iii. Made from the elements of the Periodic table
         1. Stars – hydrogen, helium on outside, heavier on inside.
         2. Planets – silicon and other stuff
      iv. Had to spin to create planets
         1. hence orbits
   B. Other Theories
      i. Sun was first
         1. Something smacked into the sun, the stuff that splattered out later became planets
         2. Orbits and rotations disprove this
      ii. The sun spun so quickly, stuff flew off of it
         1. “Spin Off Theory”
         2. The sun’s rotation disproves this
      iii. Capture theory
         1. The planets were eventually grabbed by the sun’s gravity.
            a. Orbits disprove again
VI. Planets around Other Stars
   A. Photographs showing “rings” around other stars
   B. Most planets that have been discovered are about the size of Jupiter
   C. 1930’s – Peter van de Kamp suggested that if a star wobbles, it has planets.
      i. Atmosphere made this observation impossible
   D. 1990’s, telescopes made this possible
   E. The amount of the wobble can help determine the mass of the planets
   F. About 100 stars with at least 1 planet have been discovered
   G. “Planet Finder Telescope” may be launched into space to find planets. Hopefully.
   H. Astrometric – the act of measuring an object’s wobble.
   I. Spectroscopic – Using spectroscope to determine if something is there
VII. Asteroids
   A. Chunks of rock or something of irregular shape
      i. The difference between asteroids and planets
      ii. “Minor Planets”
   B. Toutatis
      i. Near miss several weeks past.
      ii. Only 4 times the distance from the moon
   C. Go flying off when they collide into one another in the Asteroid Belt.
      i. Mainly hit Jupiter and Mars.
      ii. Sometimes people