ASTR 1010 Fall 2007: Study Guide for Quiz #5

READING: Sections 7.1 - 7.5.

Topics you should know and understand for Quiz #5 (not necessarily a complete list)

1) DEFINITIONS: Convection, Greenhouse Effect, Continental Drift, Plate Tectonics, Magnetic Dynamo, Coriolis Effect (Coriolis Force), Differentiation, Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights), Sea Floor Spreading, Asthenosphere, Subduction Zone, P-waves, S-waves; Troposphere; Stratosphere; Thermosphere (Ionosphere); Mesosphere; Ozone Layer; Solar Wind; Van Allen Belts; Hot Spot Volcanism; Half-life.

2)EQUATIONS: The relationship between time it takes for heat to escape from a planet and its size (time for heat to escape is proportional to the radius).

3) OTHER THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW: Relative sizes of the planets and the distances between them; What causes the tides; How scientists have determined the size of the liquid outer core of the Earth; what processes contribute to creating circulation in the atmospheres of planets; the primary constituents of the atmospheres of the planets and moons; what processes produce planetary and moon atmospheres; why planets have magnetic fields; what produces the Northern Lights; why scientists believe the Moon and Mars are likely mostly solid all the way through; How radioactive dating is accomplished.