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An Archive of Math Problems
These pages contain a collection of mathematics, science, and reading activities, featuring topics from solar and space science. You may also find problems that use data from various observatories, inluding Hinode, Hubble, and Spitzer.
For the complete collection of activities in solar science and astronomy, visit our Previous Problems, Sorted by Category page or the Image Education Center's
Space Science Problem of the Week.
This Week's Problem(s):
Problem 148
Spitzer Exploring a Dying Star[PDF] - Grade level: 9 - 11
Students use data from the Spitzer satellite to calculate the mass of a planetary nebula from a dying star.
[Skills: Scientific Notation, unit conversions, volume of a sphere ]
Problem 147
Black hole - fade out [PDF] - Grade level: 9 - 11
Students calculate how long it takes light to fade away as an
object falls into a black hole.
[Skills: Scientific Notation, exponential functions]
Problem 146
Black Hole Power [PDF] - Grade level: 9 - 11
Students calculate how much power is produced as matter falls into a rotating and
a non-rotating black hole; calculations include solar mass and supermassive black holes.
[Skills: Scientific Notation, Spherical shells, density, power]
Problem 145
Black Holes - What's Inside? [PDF] - Grade level: 9 - 11
Students work with the Pythagorean Theorem for black holes and investigate what
happens to space and time on the other side of an Event Horizon.
[Skills: Scientific Notation, distance, time calculations, algebra]
Problem 144
Chandra Exploring Angular Size [PDF] -
Grade level: 7 - 10
Students examine the concept of angular size and how it relates to the physical size of
an object and its distance. An X-ray image of the star cluster NGC-6266 taken with the Chandra X-ray Observatory, combined with its known distance from Earth, are used to
determine how far apart the stars are based on their angular separations.
[Skills:Scientific Notation; degree measurement; physical size=distance x angular size.]
Problem 143
NEAR So..How big is it? - Asteroid Eros surface [PDF] - Grade level: 4 - 7
Students calculate the scale of an image of the surface of the asteroid Eros from the NEAR mission, and determine the size of the rocks and boulders on its surface.
[Skills: Scaling, multiplication, division, metric measure]
Problem 142
Black Holes---Part VIII [PDF] - Grade level: 7 - 10
Matter that falls into a black hole heats up in an accretion disk,
which can emit x-rays and even gamma rays visible from Earth. In this problem,
students use a simple algebraic formula to calculate the temperature at various
places in an accretion disk.
[Skills: Scientific Notation, working with equations in one variable to first and second power]
Problem 141
Spitzer Exploring a Dusty Young Star [PDF] - Grade level: 4 - 7
Students learn how dust emits infrared light and
calculate the mass of dust grains from a young star in the nebula NGC-7129.
[Skills: Algebra I, multiplication, division, scientific notation]
Problem 140
Black Holes VII [PDF] - Grade level: 7 - 10
If you fell into a black hole, how fast would you be traveling? Students use a simple equation to calculate the free-fall speed as they pass through the event horizon.
[Skills: scientific notation, working with equations in one variable to first and second power]
Problem 139
Mars Orbiter: How Big is It? - Mars [PDF] - Grade level: 4 - 7
Students use an image of a crater wall on Mars to investigate ancient water gullies discovered in 2008 by the Mars Orbiter.
[Skills: image scales, metric measurement, division and multiplication, decimals]
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