03 Lab 01 Summary Key - lab assistance PDF

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Astronomy 115 Summary Questions Lab #1 – Scale of the Universe 1. What is meant by “scale factor?” A comparison of two values so that a larger value can be modeled on a smaller scale. Example: on a map, 1 inch = 20 miles.

2. If the distance between the Sun and Earth is 150,000,000 km and the Sun has a diameter of about 1,400,000 km, determine a scale factor in terms of km/solar diameter, and then determine the Earth-Sun distance in terms of solar diameters. Show all work and logic. Scale Factor: 1.4 x 106 km/solar diameter 1.5 x 108 km/1.4 x 106 km/solar diameter = 107 solar diameters

3. Using your scale factor from #2 above, how many Suns will fit between the position of the Sun and Jupiter? Show all work and logic. Jupiter is 5 times the distance from the Sun to the Earth. So, using the answer from number 2 above 5 x 107 solar diameters = 535 solar diameters

4. Why do astronomers measure distances in light-years? The Universe is very large and a kilometer is very small in comparison to the distances between objects in space. So as to not get entangled in extremely large numbers, astronomers use units of distance that represent a large number of smaller units of distance. A light-year is almost 1000 trillion kilometers. Also, the light-year is based on a very important concept in science, the speed of light....