PrepTest 159, Section 2, Question 16
Since 1929, cosmologists have known that the universe(446 more words not shown)
The passage indicates which one(3 more words not shown)
- AQuantum mechanics reveals(8 more words not shown)
- BPrior to 1929,(9 more words not shown)
- CSupernovas may be(8 more words not shown)
- DDark energy was(6 more words not shown)
- EVirtual particles are(8 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
This is an open support question, so check what the account actually establishes. In particular, keep the observations, proposed explanations, and historical purposes separate. A word appearing in the discussion doesn't establish every claim an answer makes about it.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
The third paragraph describes virtual subatomic particles popping in and out of existence in the so-called vacuum. That activity is why the vacuum isn't actually empty. The question doesn't require us to identify those particles more specifically than the text does.
- B
We are told when expansion became known, not that astronomers previously believed the universe was infinite. A view about whether size changes isn't a view about whether the size is infinite.
- C
Supernovas provide the measurements that reveal the acceleration. They aren't identified as its cause. Using something to observe a phenomenon is different from saying that thing produces it.
- D
Einstein proposed the cosmological constant to explain why the universe wasn't shrinking. A related idea is now being considered as part of the dark-energy explanation of acceleration. That history doesn't identify Einstein as the first person to propose dark energy itself.
- E
Quantum mechanics explains the virtual-particle activity described here. We aren't told that these particles are exempt from the general theory of relativity. The association with one theory doesn't establish exclusion from another.
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