For inspiration, here are some sample questions which were written by students in previous years for a similar version of homework set #6.

• If the planet Xiron lies 55 A.U. from the planet Alfie, will Jeff (who lives on Xiron) be able to meet his email pal Jane (who lives on Alfie) before he dies? Jeff's anatomical structure is very delicate, so he cannot travel over 100 mph, and his predicted lifespan is only 1,560 years.

• Would a dog that weighs 200 kilograms (90 pounds) be easier to pick up on the Earth or on the Moon?

• An army of giant aliens from a different galaxy decided to come to Earth and wage war against humans. As their first tactic, the giants decided to use their supernatural powers to rotate the Earth and tilt it by 90 degrees. The time of the war was December, and it was taking place in Vancouver, Canada. Why did the giants use this tactic? (Hint: the aliens could see better during the night than during the day.)

• You are going on a space trip with a Russian astronaut. You are very excited about the trip, but you are having problems communicating with him about how far you have to travel and how much food you need to bring, because you use different mathematical units. Make the necessary conversions:
  • Transform 3,450 miles into meters.
  • Change 5,699 ounces of food into grams.

• What would happen to the oceans if the Moon suddenly disappeared? (Hint: Consider the effect of the Moon and the Sun on the tides.)

• What colour would the sky appear to be if the visible light spectrum were reversed (with blue light having the longest wavelength, and red having the shortest wavelength)?

• What would happen if the planets were all the same size (and mass) as Jupiter, or as Pluto? (Hint: Consider what how conditions might change for their satellites.)

• We know that we cannot survive the supernova explosion of the Sun's eventual death. What will our society do to escape the blast?

• How would you describe the remaining life cycle process for a star that is currently on the Main Sequence as viewed on a Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, in the form of an analogy?

• The newly discovered star Maniac, named for its resemblance to Maine lighthouses, is most likely what type of star? What was its probable mass as a main sequence star, and what is its mass now?

• Imagine you are on a research expedition with the world's most elite astronomers: Aristotle, Nicole Vogt, Carla Adams, and Ryan Campbell. You are traveling around the event horizon of a black hole, when suddenly you and your colleagues are sucked into the black hole. How would you survive?
  • You would ration the portions of food you have from your emergency supply kit until you were rescued. [T/F]
  • You died instantly because the aliens that were sucked in before you ate you alive. [T/F]
  • It is impossible to survive, because your body would instantly be stretched out and completely torn apart by tidal forces. [T/F]
  • Your spaceship travels faster than the speed of light, and can escape from the black hole. [T/F]

• You are observing a star and notice that it has a red Doppler shift (it is moving away from you, so the light from the star is redshifted to longer wavelengths). A certain feature in the stellar spectra would appear at 7,000A if the star were still, but instead is found at 7,500A. What is the distance to the star, if Ho = 72 km/s/Mpc?

• What inconsistencies can you spot in the following statement?

  Scientists discover another world orbiting just inside the event horizon of a black hole. After careful telescope observations it is discovered that there is a civilization of intelligent tentacled beings inhabiting the planet. Scientists estimate their civilization has been around for about 5,000 years less than ours, and that the planet has been orbiting the black hole for millions of years. The problem is that we cannot communicate with them, because the black hole they are orbiting does not allow any message that they send to escape the event horizon.

• The following images show a field of stars, observed twice, with a six month gap between observations. Determine which star within the field lies closest to Earth, and explain your reasoning.

  [NMSU, N. Vogt]

• How would the phases and the appearance of the Moon change if it was not tidally locked to the Earth?

• Is it possible to see the silhouette of the entire lunar disk when the Moon is not in its Full phase? If so, what is the cause of its faint illumination?

• When Galileo Galilei discovered sun spots, the moons of Jupiter, and craters on the surface of the Moon, almost no one believed in his work. What ideas prevented the people of his society from accepting his observations? How might these types of ideas affect scientific discoveries waiting to be found today?