View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In a pebble bed reactor, how deep is the bed of pebbles where the uranium is placed?
(a) 1 1/2 inches.
(b) 3 inches.
(c) 2 1/2 inches.
(d) 4 inches.

2. In what country is plutonium-239 not considered nuclear waste?
(a) U.S.
(b) Canada.
(c) Russia.
(d) Canada.

3. How many people could be killed by the radioactivity in a nuclear power plant if they ate it?
(a) 30 million.
(b) 50 million.
(c) 15 million.
(d) 90 million.

4. How many astronauts were killed in the space shuttle Columbia explosion?
(a) 6.
(b) 7.
(c) 5.
(d) 8.

5. At the time the book was written, how much did the GRACE satellites discover that the ice volume in Antarctica is decreasing per year?
(a) 27 cubic miles.
(b) 43 cubic miles.
(c) 36 cubic miles.
(d) 51 cubic miles.

Short Answer Questions

1. How long did it take the Manhattan Project scientists and engineers to build three nuclear weapons?

2. If you weigh 150 pounds on Earth, how much will you weigh on Jupiter?

3. When did Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann mistakenly believe they had achieved cold fusion?

4. What is the distance to the nearest star (other than the sun)?

5. How long did the author believe it would take for a true power tokamak to become a reality in Chapter 14?

Short Essay Questions

1. What are the challenges for people moving in weak gravity?

2. Why do all objects fall at the same speed?

3. At the time the book was written, what prototype of a nuclear waste facility was developed by the U.S. government?

4. What is the weapon paradox?

5. In Chapter 18, what could the author see with night vision binoculars?

6. What happened to the space shuttle Challenger?

7. Why is it not necessary to enrich the uranium in a nucelar reactor, and what types of moderators can be used?

8. What was learned about the climate of the past from glaciers covering Greenland?

9. What radiation levels were measured after the Three Mile Island incident, and why were the levels not caused by the accident?

10. What is the main physics problem in fusion reactors, and what are some solutions?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,032 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample