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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Many scientists suspect that Pluto is just a comet of the:
(a) Solar Belt.
(b) Orion Belt.
(c) Neptunian Belt.
(d) Kuiper Belt.

2. Fred Hoyle came up with the term "Big Bang" while trying to:
(a) Simplify how the universe came to exist.
(b) Show how life evolved on Earth.
(c) Disprove the theory.
(d) Prove the theory.

3. Using a depth sounder during World War II, Harry Hess discovered that ocean floors:
(a) Are too deep to be measured.
(b) Have swirling sand drifts.
(c) Are flat.
(d) Have canyons and trenches.

4. Earth is composed of 8 to 12 larger plates and about how many smaller ones?
(a) Eighty.
(b) One hundred.
(c) Twenty.
(d) Five.

5. According to the Reverend William Buckland, the biblical reference to "in the beginning" with regards to the formation of Earth could refer to:
(a) Exactly seven days.
(b) Myths and legends.
(c) A particular era.
(d) Millions and millions of years.

6. About how many stars can be seen from Earth using a two-inch telescope?
(a) 300,000.
(b) 3 million.
(c) 30,000.
(d) 3,000.

7. When was Pluto discovered?
(a) 1930.
(b) 1892.
(c) 1876.
(d) 1957.

8. What is found at the very center of the Earth?
(a) Frozen core.
(b) Gaseous core.
(c) Liquid inner core.
(d) Solid inner core.

9. Halley believed that once scientists figured out the distance from the sun to the Earth, they could then calculate what?
(a) Distances to other planets.
(b) Weight of Earth.
(c) Distances to distant stars.
(d) Weight of the sun.

10. The strongest earthquake ever recorded was measured off the coast of Chile in 1960. What did it measure on the Richter scale?
(a) 7.8.
(b) 8.9.
(c) 9.5.
(d) 10.2.

11. Scientists eventually figured out that certain unusual rocks near Manson, Iowa, were not because of ancient volcanic activity as they first surmised, but the result of what?
(a) A huge meteor.
(b) A mini ice age.
(c) A lightning storm.
(d) A dynamite explosion.

12. In 1971, Mike Voorhies discovered an amazing fossil bed in Nebraska full of skeletons of prehistoric animals killed 12 millions years ago. How did they die?
(a) Frozen in a freak snowstorm.
(b) Infected by deadly bacteria.
(c) Inhaling ash spewed by a volcano.
(d) Drowning in a massive flood.

13. Who postponed his honeymoon in order to write a scientific paper about the movements of electrons?
(a) Niels Bohr.
(b) Albert Einstein.
(c) James Chadwick.
(d) Ernest Rutherford.

14. Vesto Slipher's work at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona led him to discover that distant stars are moving away from us, with the farthest stars moving the fastest, suggesting that the universe is:
(a) Stable.
(b) Shrinking.
(c) Oscillating.
(d) Expanding.

15. During the time of the dinosaurs, Earth's magnetic field was:
(a) Three times stronger than today.
(b) Three times weaker than today.
(c) Same as it is now.
(d) Fluctuating wildly.

Short Answer Questions

1. The first eruption of Yellowstone took place how many years ago?

2. Our universe is at least how many light-years wide?

3. Astronomer Edmond Halley approached mathematician Sir Isaac Newton to get his help figuring out why planets:

4. According to the Caltech physicist Richard Feynman, the most important discovery ever made is what?

5. Invented in the 1930s, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) have proven to be damaging to:

(see the answer keys)

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