A foliated metamorphic rock derived from granite is
A) gneiss.
B) quartzite.
C) slate.
D) marble.
Answer:
Pretend you are on a morning time mission on the surface of Venus. When looking out
the spacepod window you are likely to see
A) the Sun rising in the West.
B) the Sun rising in the East.
C) fierce windstorms everywhere you look.
D) thick and still smog-like cloud cover.
Answer:
In an undeformed sequence of rocks, the youngest rocks are found
A) at the bottom of the rock sequence.
B) as an eroded bed.
C) at the top of the rock sequence.
D) in the core of an anticline.
Answer:
When you toss a coin straight up, it moves upward, turns around, and drops. During all
this time the acceleration of the coin is
A) upward and constant.
B) downward and constant.
C) first decreasing, then increasing.
D) zero throughout its up and down motion.
Answer:
The first reptiles occurred during the
A) Tertiary.
B) Ordovician.
C) Triassic.
D) Carboniferous.
Answer:
To melt 50 g of 0C ice requires
A) 25 calories.
B) 50 calories.
C) 80 calories.
D) none of the above
Answer:
When you float in fresh water, the buoyant force that acts on you is equal to your
weight. When you float higher in the denser water of the Dead Sea, the buoyant force
that acts on you is
A) greater than your weight.
B) less than your weight.
C) equal to your weight.
Answer:
The language of science is
A) mathematics.
B) Latin.
C) Chinese.
D) Arabic.
Answer:
Your car lights were left on while you were shopping, and now your car battery is dead.
Has the pH of the battery fluid increased or decreased?
A) The pH of the battery fluid has increased.
B) The pH of the battery fluid has decreased.
C) The pH of the battery fluid does not change.
D) Since the lights were left on and the battery is dead, the pH of the battery fluid must
be zero.
Answer:
Which will warm up quicker in sunlight?
A) a piece of colored glass
B) a piece of clear glass
C) both the same
Answer:
What is the mass of a ball moving at 4 m/s with a momentum of 48 kg∙m/s?
A) 4 kg
B) 12 kg
C) 48 kg
D) 192 kg
E) none of the above
Answer:
A wave with a high frequency has a relatively
A) short wavelength.
B) long wavelength.
C) both of these
D) none of the above
Answer:
Whenever water evaporates,
A) heat is absorbed.
B) heat is released.
C) temperature rises.
D) clouds form.
Answer:
The general chemical equation for photosynthesis is shown below. Through this
reaction is the carbon oxidized or reduced? How can you tell?
6 + 6 O → + 6
A) Oxidized, since carbon is in the +4 oxidation state in but in the +6 oxidation
state in the product, , glucose.
B) Reduced, since in carbon dioxide there are two oxygen atoms for every one carbon
but within the product, , (glucose), there is only one oxygen for every one
carbon.
C) Neither, since carbon does not change its oxidation state and is neither oxidized nor
reduced.
D) Both, since the carbon atoms within the glucose molecules display two different
charge states.
Answer:
A term for electric pressure is
A) current.
B) voltage.
C) electric resistance.
Answer:
A poor conductor of heat is a
A) poor insulator.
B) good insulator.
C) neither
Answer:
Radiant energy emitted by our planet is
A) terrestrial energy.
B) the outcome of radioactivity in Earth’s interior.
C) electromagnetic.
D) all of the above
Answer:
Air that flows southward from the horse latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere deflects
eastward to produce the
A) Gulf Stream.
B) trade winds.
C) westerlies.
D) Kuroshio current.
Answer:
Steel wool wetted with vinegar is stuffed into a narrow mouth round glass bottle. A
rubber balloon is then sealed over the mouth of the bottle. After several hours, the
balloon inflates into the bottle in an inverted manner. What happened?
A) Vinegar fumes are diamagnetic and as they accumulate above the liquid the steel
wool is attracted thus inflating the balloon into the mouth of the bottle in an inverted
manner.
B) The caustic vinegar fumes get past the steel wool and deteriorate the balloon, which
begins to sag into the bottle and inflate it in an inverted manner.
C) The vinegar reacts with the steel wool by absorbing oxygen within the bottle thus
decreasing the pressure. The greater outside pressure causes the balloon to inflate in an
inverted manner.
D) False! The balloon inflates above the mouth of the bottle because the reaction
between the vinegar and steel wool produces a gas which is forced upward because of
increased pressure inside the sealed bottle.
Answer:
Mica is not found in
A) slate.
B) schist.
C) gneiss.
D) quartzite.
Answer:
Pour vinegar onto beach sand from the Caribbean and the result is a lot of froth and
bubbles. Pour vinegar onto beach sand from California, however, and nothing happens.
Why?
A) Beaches in tropical climates generally have remnants of volcanic deposit not present
in California sand. These deposits contain soil with organic residue. Vinegar’s acetic
acid reacts with organic matter.
B) The pH of the warm sands of tropical waters is well into the basic range, unlike the
beach sand in California. Therefore, the acidic vinegar reacts with Caribbean beach
sand but not with sand from California.
C) Beach sand from the Caribbean and many other tropical climates is made primarily
of the calcium carbonate remains of coral and shelled creatures. Vinegar is an acid and
the calcium carbonate is a base.
D) Caribbean beach sand contains deposits from the mouth of the Mississippi river
which carries with it a great deal of contamination from urban waste. These warm water
contaminates react with the acid in vinegar.
Answer:
Why is the carbon-14 dating not accurate for estimating the age of materials more than
50,000 years old?
A) This form of radioactive dating is only accurate back 1400 years.
B) The concentration of carbon-14 in a body after 50,000 years is too low.
C) Living organisms are too decomposed after 50,000 years.
D) Actually, carbon-14 dating is accurate back to around 5 million years ago.
Answer:
Which of the following would be considered applied research?
A) determining the lightest and strongest metal to be used for an airplane wing
B) testing the strength of a piece of metal
C) determining the melting temperature of a metal
D) examining how susceptible a metal is to bending
E) determining how readily a metal corrodes in a wet environment
Answer:
Earth’s lower atmosphere is warm because of
A) incoming solar radiation.
B) terrestrial radiation.
C) cloud cover.
D) outgoing short-wave radiation.
Answer:
Which of the following best describes ionic bonding?
A) two atoms sharing a set of electrons
B) two atoms exchanging a set of electrons
C) one atom giving up some of its electrons to another atom
D) when two elements with same charge are held together by electrostatic forces
E) none of the above
Answer:
When a bar magnet is thrust into a coil of wire, a greater voltage is induced with
A) a greater number of loops in the coil.
B) faster thrusting motion.
C) a stronger bar magnet.
D) all of the above
Answer:
Just as water flows from high to low pressure, electric charge flows from
A) high to low voltage.
B) high charge concentration to low charge concentration.
C) high resistance to low resistance.
D) all of the above
E) none of the above
Answer:
The open spaces in the crystal lattice of ice contain
A) vapor.
B) trace amounts of water.
C) nothing.
Answer:
Although desert environments can occur for many reasons, a factor that has little to do
with their occurrence is
A) rising warm air.
B) the rain shadow effect.
C) when they are great distances from the ocean.
D) descending air.
E) the proximity of deserts to cold ocean currents.
Answer:
The buoyant force on an object is less when the object is
A) only partly submerged.
B) submerged near the surface.
C) submerged near the bottom.
D) none of the above
Answer:
What evidence was used to support magnetic pole reversals?
A) apparent polar wandering and alternating magnetic stripe patterns on the ocean floor
B) paleomagnetism
C) normal and reverse polarity
D) continental drift and seafloor spreading
Answer:
Which of the following elements is a gas at room temperature?
A) argon (Ar)
B) lead (Pb)
C) cesium (Cs)
D) indium (In)
E) lithium (Li)
Answer:
The magnetic field strength inside a current-carrying coil will be greater if the coil
encloses
A) a vacuum.
B) a wooden rod.
C) a glass rod.
D) an iron rod.
E) none of the above
Answer:
A single raindrop illuminated by sunshine disperses
A) a single color.
B) either low, middle, or high frequency colors in most cases.
C) all the colors just like a small prism does.
Answer:
The purpose of the third prong on a common electric plug of an appliance is
A) to handle three-phase electricity.
B) to provide an alternate live wire.
C) to connect the appliance to zero ground potential.
D) a substitute for a safety fuse.
E) all of the above
Answer:
Why are older rocks more likely to be found on the continents than on the ocean floor?
Answer:
On a TV screen, red, green, and blue spots of light produce a full spectrum of colors.
What spots are activated to produce yellow? Red? Magenta? White?
Answer:
Identify the locations of Earth’s water, both oceanic and fresh.
Answer:
What are the chief types of metamorphic rocks?
Answer:
Does the fact that the mantle is beneath the crust necessarily mean that the mantle is
denser than the crust? Explain.
Answer:
Why does a satellite in elliptical orbit gain speed as it moves closer to the planet? When
is its kinetic energy greatest? Least? Where is its potential energy greatest? The least?
Answer:
What geologic features are explained by plate tectonics?
Answer:
As rock melts to become magma, which minerals are the first to melt?
Answer:
Describe two sources from which minerals can crystallize.
Answer:
What is the evidence that the Sun is a relatively new star in the universe?
Answer:
Which mineral, quartz or feldspar, will crystallize first? Why?
Answer:
What are beats and how are they produced?
Answer:
What are the rock-forming mineral groups?
Answer:
Why do your ears pop when you ascend to higher altitudes? Explain.
Answer:
Why are most earthquakes generated near plate boundaries?
Answer:
What was the one most important event in the Precambrian?
Answer: