Prepare for the New York Earth Science Regents exam with these practice questions and answers. This comprehensive guide covers geology, astronomy, meteorology, and environmental science.
Q: How is density affected if pressure and temperature are constant?(regardless of size)
Answer: Density is the same
Q: How is density affected when pressure in a solid or gas increase?
Answer: Density increases
Q: How is density affected when temperature of matter increases?
Answer: Density decreases
Q: What happens when water freezes?
Answer: It expands
Q: Many changes are…
Answer: Cyclic(an event that repeats itself)
Q: When is water most dense?
Answer: At 4 degrees Celsius, when it is a liquid
Q: When isolines are closer how is the slope/gradient affected?
Answer: The slope/gradient is steeper(greater value)
Q: What does dynamic equilibrium?
Answer: Balance
Q: What does earth do with short waves(visible light)?
Answer: Earth absorbs short waves
Q: What does earth do with long waves(infrared energy)?
Answer: Earth radiates long waves
Q: What is the true shape of the earth?
Answer: An oblate spheroid
Q: What is the best model of earth?
Answer: A perfect circle
Q: What does the altitude of Polaris equal?
Answer: The observers latitude
Q: In which direction are lines of latitude drawn and what do they measure?
Answer: They are drawn from east to west and measure angular distance north and south
Q: In which direction are lines of longitude drawn and what do they measure?
Answer: They are drawn from north to south and measure angular distance east to west
Q: In which direction does the earth rotate?
Answer: The earth rotates from west to east(24 hours)
Q: In which direction does earth revolve when viewed from above the North Pole?
Answer: Earth revolves counterclockwise(365.25 days) when vied from above the North Pole.
Q: Where does the sun appear to rise and set?
Answer: The sun appears to rise in the east and set in the west
Q: Why does the moon have phases?
Answer: The moon has phases because the angle between the earth and Lon changes because the moon revolves around earth(half the moon is always lit)
Q: What is June 21st?
Answer: The summer solstice,the sun is directly above at 23 1/2 degrees north latitude
Q: What is December 21st?
Answer: The winter solstice, the sun is directly above at 23 1/2 degrees south latitude
Q: What is March 21st?
Answer: An Equinox, sun is directly overhead at the equator
Q: What is September 23rd?
Answer: An Equinox,sun is directly overhead at the equator
Q: What does a blue shift mean?
Answer: An celestial object is getting closer to earth
Q: What does a red shift mean?
Answer: An celestial object is getting farther away
Q: How many hours of daylight does the equator always have?
Answer: 12 hours
Q: How does altitude of the sun affect the length of the shadow?
Answer: The lower the altitude of the sun the longer the shadow, and the higher the altitude of the sun the shorter the length of a shadow
Q: What does the Foucault Pendulum illustrate and what does it prove?
Answer: It illustrates the Coriolanus effect, and proves the earths rotation
Q: In which season is earth closest to the sun?
Answer: Winter
Q: How is the velocity of a planets orbit affected by its distance from the sun?
Answer: The farther the planet is from the sun the slower its orbit,the closer it is the faster it’s orbit. This is gravitational pull.
Q: What is always one foci of an ellipse?
Answer: The sun
Q: What color absorbs energy and which color reflects energy?
Answer: Black objects absorb energy and white objects reflect energy
Q: How does the apparent diameter of an object(sun,moon) change as it gets closer to earth.
Answer: It gets larger
Q: Explain the Coriolis effect
Answer: Winds curve right in the northern hemisphere, and left in the Southern Hemisphere.
Q: Where does energy move
Answer: Energy moves from the source to sink(high to low)
Q: In which directions does air move around a high pressure system?
Answer: Air moves clockwise and outward
Q: In which directions does air move around a low pressure system?
Answer: Air moves counterclockwise and inwards
Q: Good absorbers of radiation are also
Answer: Good radiators
Q: When is the hottest part of the year
Answer: July(Northern Hemisphere)
Q: Hottest time of the day?
Answer: After 1:00 pm
Q: What happens to air pressure when temperature increases?
Answer: Air pressure decreases
Q: What happens to atmospheric pressure when atmospheric moisture increases(humidity)?
Answer: Atmospheric pressure decreases
Q: How is air pressure affected by altitude?
Answer: Air pressure decreases when altitude goes up
Q: What does cooler and drier air generally exert?
Answer: Higher pressure
Q: What does warm moist air generally exert?
Answer: Lower pressure
Q: What is the result of pressure differences?
Answer: Wind
Q: Wind is name for the direction
Answer: It’s coming from
Q: In which direction does wind blow?
Answer: High to low pressure
Q: How do air temperature and dew point affect the chance of precipitation?
Answer: The closer together the two are the higher chance of precipitation
Q: In which direction does weather move in the US?
Answer: East to west
Q: What happens to temperature humidity and pressure as a cold front passes?
Answer: Temperature and humidity decrease and pressure rises
Q: What happens to temperature humidity and pressure as a warm front passes?
Answer: Temperature and humidity increase and pressure decreases
Q: When does an occluded front form?
Answer: When a cold front overtakes a warm front
Q: Which fronts move the fastest?
Answer: Cold fronts
Q: What happens to air when it rises?
Answer: Air expands and cools
Q: Porosity does not depend on…
Answer: particle size
Q: What happens to permeability when particle size increases?
Answer: Permeability increases
Q: What happens to capillarity when particle size decreases?
Answer: Capillarity increases
Q: What does Ep(potential evapotranspiration) depend on?
Answer: Temperature
Q: What does water due to temperature?
Answer: Moderates temperature
Q: What happens in Adiabatic cooling?
Answer: Rising air expands because the pressure on it decreases
Q: In which climate does chemical weathering dominate?
Answer: Warm humid climates
Q: In which climate does physical weathering dominate?
Answer: Cold humid climates
Q: What is the force that drives erosion?
Answer: Gravity
Q: What does stream velocity depend on?
Answer: Gradient and discharge
Q: Where is velocity greatest on a meander bend?
Answer: On the outside of the bend
Q: Which particles settle out first?
Answer: Heavy round dense particles
Q: How does still water sort sediments?
Answer: Vertically with biggest sediments on the bottom
Q: What is an unconformity?
Answer: A buried erosion surface that represents a gap in the rock record
Q: What happens when a rock is broken into smaller pieces?
Answer: Surface area increases and weathering rate increase
Q: What do mineral properties depend on?
Answer: Internal atomic arrangement
Q: Ocean crust is …
Answer: Thin dense and basaltic
Q: Continental crust is…
Answer: Thick less dense and granitic
Q: What are features of a sedimentary rock?
Answer: Commonly layered, and almost all fossils formIn sedimentary environments
Q: What are features of an igneous rock?
Answer: Cools fast, small crystals;cools slow,large crystals
Q: What are features of a metamorphic rock?
Answer: A banded distorted structure
Q: Arid landscapes have…
Answer: Steep slopes with sharp angles
Q: Humid landscapes are…
Answer: Smooth with rounded slopes
Q: What is a mid ocean ridge?
Answer: New earth being created by sea floor spreading
Q: What is a trench?
Answer: Earth being destroyed big a subduction zone
Q: What are the differences between p and S waves?
Answer: P waves are faster then S waves and canGo through liquids solids and gasses while S waves can only travel through solids
Q: How many stations do you need to find an epicenter?
Answer: A minimum of 3
Q: What moves plates?
Answer: Convection currents in the mantle
Q: What do plate tectonics state?
Answer: That earths crust is broken into plates which canmove
Q: What are the three main type of plate boundaries?
Answer: Convergent, divergent, and transform
Q: How do mountains form?
Answer: Uplift
Q: What index fossils are good time markers?
Answer: Fossils that are widely spread and lived a short life
Q: Which layer in an undisturbed Rock layer is the oldest?
Answer: The bottom layer
Q: What is the relative age of intrusions and faults compared to the rocks their in?
Answer: They are younger
Q: What dates old rocks?
Answer: Uranium 238 (U 238)
Q: What’s dates recent living objects?
Answer: Carbon 14