Meteors and the origin of the Solar System
Answers are for parents and teachers.
1
At 25 meteors an hour, how many in 5 hours?
125
2
A sample has a half-life of 4 billion years and 1/4 is left. What is the age in billions of years? (2 half-lives · 4)
8
3
The cloud’s radius shrinks 5 times. By what factor does its rotation rate increase? (5 · 5)
25
4
Write one similarity and one difference between the Tunguska and Chelyabinsk events.
Both exploded in the air; Tunguska (1908) was larger (≈ 50–60 m), Chelyabinsk (2013) ≈ 20 m.
5
How does the disc hypothesis explain why the planets orbit in one direction?
They formed from one rotating disc and inherited its angular momentum.