Geography 2152F/G Study Guide - Risk Society, Scientism, Plausible Deniability

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28 Apr 2012

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Occurred early in the morning, like many other technological accidents. The resulting steam explosion destroyed the core of the reactor, releasing at least one hundred times the radiation of both atom bombs dripped on hiroshima and nagasaki. A deadly radioactive plume soared into the jet stream and blew over scandinavia easily transgressing political boundaries. Many casualties and health consequences: immediate toll was 47 pilots and firemen died due to acute radiation poisoning, 4,000 people died as a result of radiation poisoning according to the international atomic energy agency (iaea) According to the report, most people suffered from self perceived poor health and not real ailments. Based on official soviet estimates, the report also claimed the presence of myths and misperceptions about the threat of radiation in the affected areas. The disaster and response stemmed fro a failure of imagination and not simply from a breakdown of technology.

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A friend of yours has recently read a story on the Web that eating a broccoli should be avoided because broccoli contains potassium which has radioactive isotope K-40. As a consequence of reading this story, she has been telling you and others not to eat broccoli. Is eating broccoli, indeed, a radioactive hazard to your health? Determine the activity (in Bq or mCi) for a typical serving of broccoli which contains about 300 mg of potassium. Note that the natural abundance of K-40 is .0117% and its half life is T1/2=1.248E9 yr. Assuming the average radiation energy released per decay is 480keV, what is the maximum energy absorbed into one's body over 30 days, the time for 50% of the potassium-40 to be eliminated the body biologically. Do you agree with your friend that eating broccoli is a radioactive health risk?

1. The Jeans instability occurs when
Athe pressure in a gascloud is less than its gravitationalforce.
Bthe pressure in a gascloud is greater than its gravitationalforce.
Cthe temperature in acollapsing cloud is hot enough to fuseHydrogen.
Dthe temperature in acollapsing cloud is hot enough to fuse Helium.

2. At what stage in its life does a star pass through theprotostarphase?
AAfter condensationbut before nuclear reactions begin in itscore.
BWhile it is convertinghydrogen into helium in its core.
CAfter nuclear reactionsend in its core, but before the red giantphase.
DWhen it is expanding insize as a red giant or supergiant.

3. The characteristics of an open cluster of stars are
Aa few hundredmembers, often very young and still embedded in thegas and dustfrom which they were formed.
Bmany thousand members, ofdifferent ages.
Ca few dozen members, theremnant of a globular cluster of starsfrom which most of themembers have escaped.
Dhundreds of thousands ofmembers, all very old, and no or verylittle interstellar gas anddust.

4. What is a protostar?
AA star near the endof its life, before it explodes as asupernova.
BA sphere of gas aftercollapse from an interstellar cloud butbefore nuclear reactionshave begun.
CA small interstellarcloud, before it collapses to become astar.
DA shell of gas left behindfrom the explosion of a star as asupernova.

5. What is an H II region?
AA region of hot,ionized hydrogen around one or more O and Bstars.
BA region of molecularhydrogen inside a giant molecularcloud.
CA region of neutral,atomic hydrogen in interstellar space.
DA region of gas and dustformed by the explosion of a massive star.

6. The total time that the Sun will spend as a main sequencestaris
Aabout 4.5 millionyears.
Bat least 200 billion yearsyears.
Cabout 1 millionyears.
Dabout 10 billionyears.

7. How is a star's lifetime related to its mass?
AThe lifetimes ofstars are too long to measure, so it is not knownhow (or if) theirlifetimes depend on mass.
BA star's lifetime does notdepend on its mass.
CLower-mass stars runthrough their lives faster and have shorterlifetimes.
DHigher-mass stars runthrough their lives faster and have shorterlifetimes.

8. In the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, how does the position ofatypical star change while it is at the main sequence phase ofitsevolution?
AA star's position onthe main sequence is determined only by itsmass and not its age,and so, stars do not move along the mainsequence duringevolution.
BMassive stars (4 solarmasses) move toward the upper left as theirluminosity increases,while lower-mass stars move toward the lowerright as theirtemperature decreases.
CStars move from upperright to lower left while they are on themain sequence.
DStars move from upper leftto lower right while they are on themain sequence.

9. Why does the core of the Sun contain more helium andlesshydrogen than does the surface of the Sun?
AHelium condenses moreeasily so, when the Sun was forming the corebecame helium-rich;vast quantities of hydrogen were added onlyafter the core becamemassive enough.
BThe hydrogen has beenlifted out of the core by the Sun's magneticfield.
CHelium is heavier thanhydrogen, and has sunk toward the center ina process of chemicaldifferentiation.
DThermonuclear reactionshave converted much of the originalhydrogen in the core intohelium.

10. In terms of nuclear reactions, what is the next stage ofastar's life after the end of hydrogen burning in thecore?
AHydrogen burning ina thin shell around the core.
BHelium burning in thecore.
CCarbon burning.
DDeath (it becomes eithera supernova or a white dwarf).

11. What makes a red giant star so large?
ARed giants are rapidrotators, and centrifugal force pushes thesurface of the staroutwards.
BThe star has many timesmore mass than the Sun.
CThe hydrogen-burningshell is heating the envelope and making itexpand.
DThe helium-rich core hasexpanded, pushing the outer layers of thestar outwards.

12. A red dwarf is a
Ahot and dim mainsequence star.
Bcool and bright mainsequence star.
Chot and bright mainsequence star.
Dcool and dim mainsequence star.

13. Some red dwarfs are fully
Aconductive.
Bconvective.
Cradiative.
Ddevoid of nuclearfusion.

14. Which of the following pieces of information do we NOT needtoinfer the density of a star?
Adistance
Bflux
Ctemperature
Dage
Emass

15. We can measure the age of a planetary nebula by
Adividing thenebula's size by its expansion speed.
Busing the mass-luminosityrelationship for the white dwarf at thecenter.
Cdividing its distance bythe speed of light.
Dlooking at the ages ofstars nearby.

16. The maximum mass of a white dwarf is
A1.4 solar masses andknown as the Oppenheimer-Volkov limit.
B1.4 solar masses andknown as the Chandrasekhar limit.
C3 solar masses and knownas the Oppenheimer-Volkov limit.
D3 solar masses and knownas the Chandrasekhar limit.

17. The interstellar medium is mostly _______ followedby________.
AHydrogen;Helium.
BHelium;Hydrogen.
CCarbon;Hydrogen.
DHydrogen;Carbon.
ECorbon; Oxygen.

18. The interstellar medium has a cool component measuredvia_________ observations and a hot component revealed by________observations.
AX-ray;optical
BX-ray; infrared
CX-ray;gamma-ray
Doptical; X-ray
Einfrared; X-ray

19. The interstellar medium has a cool component which is_______its hot component.
Adenserthan
Bless dense than
Cas dense as

20. Which of the following processes will NOT cause a gas cloudtocollapse?
Aionization fromyoung stars
Bsupernovaexplosions
Cgalacticrotation
Dthe expansion of theUniverse

Geography 2152F/G Study Guide - Risk Society, Scientism, Plausible Deniability

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