The mountain · Science ridge · camp 4 of 4
Earth & space
Earth and space: rocks and the rock cycle, weather and climate, the water cycle, plate tectonics, the solar system and what lies beyond it.
Walk to this camp
Three questions light the next lantern. Nothing to install, no sign-up.
Eight rungs, one trail
Every camp on the mountain has the same eight rungs: the eight altitudes Alpenrise measures, read back in the words of your own school system. Rung 1 is the bottom of secondary school; rung 8 is beyond the final exam.
| Rung | New Zealand | United Kingdom | Cambridge | IB |
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| R1Explorer | Year 7 | Year 7 | Stage 7 | MYP 1 |
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| R2Pathfinder | Year 8 | Year 8 | Stage 8 | MYP 2 |
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| R3Voyager | Year 9 | Year 9 | Stage 9 | MYP 3 |
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| R4Navigator | Year 10 | Year 10 · GCSE yr 1 | IGCSE Yr 1 | MYP 4 |
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| R5Pioneer | Year 11 | Year 11 · GCSE | IGCSE Yr 2 | MYP 5 |
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| R6Summit | Year 12 | Year 12 · AS | AS Level | DP 1 |
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| R7Apex | Year 13 | Year 13 · A Level | A Level | DP 2 |
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| R8Beyond | NZ Scholarship | beyond A Level | STEP prep | DP HL+ |
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One question from each rung
The mountain draws three questions per rung from the same slice as the free placement. Here is one from each rung of Earth & space, shown without its answer.
- Rung 1 · Explorer · Year 7A model of the solar system uses 1 cm for every 10 million km. A planet is 100 million km from the Sun. How far from the Sun should it be placed on the model, in cm?
- Rung 2 · Pathfinder · Year 8Dry air is about 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen and 1% other gases, measured by volume. A sealed flask holds 600 cm³ of dry air. Calculate the volume of nitrogen in the flask, in cm³.
- Rung 3 · Voyager · Year 9A class measures how thick a fresh ash layer is at four distances out from a volcanic vent. The readings are: 2 km 64 mm; 4 km 32 mm; 8 km 16 mm; 16 km 8 mm. Interpret them and suggest which description fits the pattern they show.The layer gets thinner as the distance grows, and each doubling of the distance halves the thickness. · The layer gets thinner as the distance grows, losing the same 16 mm for every extra 2 km travelled out from the vent. · The layer gets thicker as the distance grows, which fits ash being carried outwards and dropped in ever greater amounts. · There is no link at all between distance and thickness in these four readings, which simply scatter about.
- Rung 4 · Navigator · Year 10Two galaxies are measured and both show a red-shift. A student concludes that every galaxy in the universe is moving away from us.
Evaluate whether the evidence supports this conclusion.Two galaxies are far too few to say anything about every galaxy there is · The evidence is enough, because both galaxies gave exactly the same result · The evidence overturns it, because a red-shift means moving towards us · No conclusion is possible, because red-shift tells us nothing about motion
- Rung 5 · Pioneer · Year 11In a simplified model of the crust, P waves travel at 6 km/s and S waves at 3.6 km/s. Both waves leave the earthquake source at the same moment. At one seismograph station the S wave arrives 35 s after the P wave. How far was the station from the source? Answer in kilometres.
- Rung 6 · Summit · Year 12At a certain temperature, air can hold at most 40 g of water vapour per m³. A sample is holding 36 g per m³. What is the relative humidity, as a percentage?
- Rung 7 · Apex · Year 13The tidal force one body raises on another is proportional to 1 ÷ (distance)³. A moon moves to 4 times closer than before. Its tidal force on the planet becomes how many times as strong?
- Rung 8 · Beyond · NZ ScholarshipTwo orbital cycles change how much sunlight the Earth receives: one repeats every 41 thousand years, the other every 100 thousand years. Both peaked together this year. After how many thousand years will they next peak together?
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