CMB-S4

CMB-S4 Next Generation CMB Experiment

high school course

Big Bang Course

Welcome to the CMB-S4 course for high school students. This course consists of a series of talks presented by CMB-S4 scientists from across the collaboration. Dr. Felipe Maldonado starts the series off with an introduction to the Big Bang, the cosmic microwave background, and the expansion of the Universe.

To start, keep this google form open on another tab and answer the questions after you watch each video. Once you have completed all the sections, submit the form so your answers may be recorded. Your name and email will be collected at the start of the quiz; this will allow us to send each student an electronic certificate of participation.

Course Objectives

I. The Big Bang

  1. Introduction to Cosmology
    • Define the fields of cosmology, astronomy, astrology, and cosmogony.
    • Explain the roles and contributions of cosmologists in understanding the universe.
  2. Cosmological History
    • Explore the history of cosmological theories from ancient myths to modern science.
    • Discuss the role of key figures and debates, including the Great Debate and the heliocentric vs. geocentric models.
  3. Big Bang Evidence
    • Identify key evidence for the Big Bang, including the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and the abundance of elements like helium and deuterium.
    • Understand the implications of Olbers’ Paradox and the solutions it provides for the beginning of the universe.

1 – Big Bang Introduction 

  1. What does a cosmologist do?
    • Studies the positions of celestial objects to explain or predict human behavior
    • Studies the universe as a whole
    • Studies the physical/chemical properties of celestial objects and phenomena 
    • Studies the origin of the universe
  2. Where has the CMB-S4 collaboration proposed observatories be built? (Multiple select)
    • Brazil
    • South Pole
    • United States
    • Chile

2 – Cosmological History

  1. Which creation myth was described in the video?
    • Gaia from the void of Chaos from Greek mythology
    • Ashvattha, the Sacred Fig Tree from Hindu Mythology
    • Yggdrasil, the World Tree from Norse Religion
    • Axis Mundi Cosmic Tree from Siberian Shamanism
  2. What does the Lambda CDM model of the universe imply?
    • The universe is dominated by dark energy and dark matter
    • The universe is dominated by baryonic matter
    • The universe is static
    • The universe is expanding
  3. Which scientist did NOT support the Heliocentric model of the solar system
    • Tycho Brahe
    • Galileo Galilei
    • Nicolaus Copernicus
    • Johannes Kepler
  4. In the Great Debate what did Harlow Shapley believe?
    • The Milky Way is the entire universe
    • There are many other galaxies just like the Milky Way
  5. The measurables Henrietta Swan Leavitt used to measure the distance of galaxies were how long it takes to change their brightness and how bright they appear to be on a telescope
    • True
    • False

3 – Redshift of Galaxies

  1. The phenomenon of the change in frequency of light caused by the relative motion of the source and the observer is called the ______
  2. If a galaxy is accelerating towards an observer, how would the galaxy appear?
    • Redshifted
    • Blueshifted
    • Greenshifted
    • None of the above
  3. What does Hubble’s analysis of redshifted galaxies implicate?
    • Galaxies farther away are moving away faster
    • Galaxies farther are moving away slower
    • Galaxies closer by are moving away faster
    • Galaxies closer by are moving away slower

4 – Cosmic Microwave Background

  1. Where does the electric field of the parallel plate capacitor behave homogeneously?
    • Above the positive plate
    • At the edges
    • In the middle between the positive and negative plates
    • Below the negative plate
  2. The Homogeneity of the universe holds at human scales
    • True
    • False
  3. A map of the universe was made by the ______ , an observatory located in a desert in New Mexico
  4. Which wavelength of light did Penzias and Wilson detect to be the same everywhere for background sky radiation?
    • Radiowave
    • Microwave
    • Infrared
    • Visual
    • Ultraviolet
    • X-rays
    • Gamma rays
  5. What do the different colors on the CMB as observed by the Planck mission indicate?
    • Density variations
    • Energy variations
    • Pressure variations
    • Temperature variations
  6. What is the cosmological principal?
    • When viewed at sufficiently large scales, the properties of the universe are the same to all observers
    • The Earth is an average planet in an average star, in an average galaxy, in an average place of the universe.
    • The universe is homogenous and isotropic on a large scale
    • The universe has to be infinitely large

5 – The Expanding Universe

  1. The question of why the night sky is dark despite the infinite number of stars in the universe is called _____ Paradox
  2. Why is the night sky dark, in relation to Olber’s paradox and the expansion of the universe?
    • The universe is finite and has a limited number of stars.
    • The light from distant stars has been absorbed by interstellar dust.
    • The universe is expanding, causing the light from distant stars to redshift beyond the visible spectrum.
    • The Earth’s atmosphere scatters all starlight, preventing it from reaching the ground.
  3. Which of the following examples shows that some infinities can be bigger than other infinities?
    • The set of all positive integers and the set of all negative integers
    • The number of points on a line segment and the number of points on a plane.
    • The set of all prime numbers and the set of all positive integers
    • The number of decimal numbers between 0 and 1 and the number of decimal numbers between 0 and 2

6 – The Big Bang

  1. What did the solution to Olbers’ paradox imply?
    • The universe has a beginning
    • The universe is infinitely old and has always existed
    • The universe is warming up
    • The universe is becoming smaller
  2. What are two important pieces of evidence for the Big Bang?
    • The Cosmic Microwave Background
    • The consistent size of galaxies
    • The density distribution of dark matter
    • The abundance of helium and deuterium
    • The hawking radiation of black holes
  3. Atoms that have the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons in their nuclei are called _____, and hence differ in relative atomic mass but not in chemical properties.
  4. New deuterium can be created
    • True
    • False
  5. Which theories work together to create our current understanding of the universe?
    • Newtonian Mechanics
    • Electromagnetism
    • General Relativity
    • Quantum Mechanics
    • Thermodynamics