HR Diagram Homework Questions
You may want to print this page out and write or type in the answers
On a hard copy of your chart, circle and label the following:
- The brightest stars
- The nearest stars
- Red Giants
- White Dwarfs
- Solar type stars
- What generalizations can you make about the nearby stars vs. the brightest stars? In other words, what tends to be similar amongst most of each grouping of stars that is different in the other grouping? What characteristics seem to be fairly random in each grouping of stars? Look at your spreadsheet and your HR diagram to answer this question. It is more important that you interpet your data and graph than write down what you "know" the "correct" answer is from readings, although if your work is bringing you to odd conclusions like "all the stars have the same absolute magnitude" you might want to revaluate your spreadsheet work.
- Just like you can use this equation L = 10[0.4(5-M)] to find luminosity, you can use this equation B=10[0.4(5-m)] to find brightnesses of stars. The faintest star we can see in dark skies with our eyes has a magnitude of about 6.0 .Calculate how many times fainter this is than the brightest star we can see besides the sun. Now calculate how times fainter this is than the sun itself. Show your work, for full credit, and draw a box around your final answer. You may use a spreadsheet formula if you wish though a calculator may be just as fast.
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