Homework problems are assigned from the
7th edition of the
textbook The Cosmic Perspective - The Solar System.
Be sure you are doing the right homework problems!
Other editions of the text will have different questions.
All homeworks are due at the beginning of lecture on the date specified.
Remember to put your name on your homework! Be sure to type or write neatly - we can not give credit for things we can not read.
Extra Credit: At what speed must a baseball be thrown to have a kinetic energy equivalent to a one Megaton H-bomb? (see Table 4.1) Express your answer as a fraction of the speed of light. The mass of a baseball is 145 grams. You may ignore relatvistic corrections.
Extra Credit: Refer to Mathematical Insight 10.1 in the textbook to do this problem. Using the information provided there, and in the table here,
| Object | Temp. | Albedo |
|---|---|---|
| Earth | 287 K | 0.39 |
| Moon | 271 K | 0.12 |
Given that the Earth and Moon share the same orbit, so receive the same
amount of energy per unit area from the sun, does this shed any light on
claims that the sun is responsible for climate change on Earth?
(The temperature of the Moon has not changed noticably in the decades
since Apollo.)