Home page for Fall 2008 AST 2002H Section 0207

(MWF 12:30-1:20)

News (Nov 19, 1pm):

For Friday - finish reading Chapter 17.
Test #3 is on Wednesday November 26.
Homework #19 on MA is due Monday November 24.
FYI, the final is on Friday December 12, but if you are happy with your course grade after the 3 tests, you don't have to take the final.
If you do want to take the final, SARC will be running review sessions during finals week. In particular, these will be held at 3 to 5 pm on Sunday December 7, 12 midnight to 2 am (yes that's right) on Monday December 8 (i.e. late Sunday night), and 4 to 8 pm on Wednesday December 10. The times are subject to change; check the website for details.

Basics:

The syllabus is available. Note that the office hours are different from v1.0.
The FAQ is available.
Things you need:
- A subscription to Mastering Astronomy -- you'll need this course code: MA88856.
- The workbook by Prather et al. -- you must buy this new. I'll let you know later this week if there is any news about availability at the bookstore.
- The textbook by Bennett et al..
- A tiny stapler.
More info about materials:
- You don't need a clicker for this course. You don't need Sparkcharts for this course.
- At the bookstore you can buy a bundle that has the textbook and the MA subscription together.
- If financial considerations are an issue, see me. We can come up with a solution.

Random Links:

Tutoring is available at SARC. Times are M 10:30-11:30, 12-6; T 9-10, 12-2; W 10:30-11:30, 12-2, 2:30-4:30; R 9-10; F 10:30-11:30, 2:30-3:30.
If you want to buy diffraction gratings, you can buy them here or here, for example, but caveat emptor.
If you want to buy red-blue anaglyph (3-D) glasses, you could get them for example from places like this, or you could buy them from me.
Pictures of the terrestrial planets: Mercury, Venus, Venus, The Moon, The Moon, Mars, Mars, Mars, Mars.

Lectures:
Choose either color or B/W. Forthcoming lectures are only drafts; I reserve the right to change them.

Week	Mon.		Wed.		Fri.
1	color	bw	color	bw	color	bw
2	hol		color	bw	color	bw
3	color, bw
4	color	bw	color	bw	color	bw
5	color	bw	test		color	bw
6	color	bw	color	bw	color	bw
7	color	bw	color	bw	color	bw
8	color	bw	color	bw	color	bw
9	color	bw	color	bw	color	bw
10	color	bw	color	bw	test
11	color	bw	color	bw	color	bw
12	color	bw	color	bw	color	bw
13	color	bw	color	bw	draft color	draft bw
14	--	--	test		hol
15	--	--	--	--	--	--

In-Class Assignments. Note that not all assignments are graded.

#	Date	What	Graded?	Points	Notes	Some Solutions
1	Wed Aug 27	Prather et al. pp.131-132 "Looking at Distant Objects"	Y	5	--	x
2	Wed Sep 5	Prather et al. pp.1-2 "Position"	Y	5	--	x
3	Mon Sep 8	Prather et al. pp.87-88, #1-#5 "Path of the Sun"	N	--	didn't turn in	x
4	Wed Sep 10	Prather et al. pp.94-96, #12-#13, #17-#19 "Seasons"	N	--	didn't turn in	x
5	Fri Sep 12	Prather et al. pp.79-81, "The Cause of Moon Phases"	N	--	didn't turn in	x
6	Fri Sep 26	Prather et al. pp.21-22, "Kepler's Second Law"	Y	5	--	x
7	Mon Sep 29	Prather et al. pp.25-27, "Kepler's Third Law"	Y	5	--	x
8	Fri Oct 3	Prather et al. pp.29-31, "Newton's Law of Gravity"	Y	5	--	x
9	Wed Oct 8	Prather et al. pp.61-62, "Types of Spectra"	N	--	didn't turn in	x
10	Mon Oct 13	seeing the infrared	Y	5	a movie goes with this	x
11	Wed Oct 15	Prather et al. pp. 57-59, #1-#10, "Blackbody Radiation"	N	--	didn't turn in	x
12	Fri Oct 17	Prather et al. pp. 73-77, #1-#9 & #11, "Doppler Effect"	Y	5	--	x
13	Fri Nov 14	Prather et al. pp. 133-134, "Expansion of the Universe"	Y	5	--	x

Homework. Note that not all assignments are graded.

#	Date Due	What	Graded?	Points	Notes	Some Solutions
1	Sep. 5 12:30pm	Prather et al. pp.105-107 "Sun Size"	N	--	--	x
2	Sep. 5 12:30pm	MasteringAstronomy "Homework #2"	Y	5	--	on MA
3	Sep. 15 12:30pm	Ranking Task "Motion of the Sky"	Y	5	you can write your answers on a separate sheet	x
4	Sep. 15 12:30pm	MasteringAstronomy "Homework #4"	N	--	--	on MA
5	Sep. 19 12:30pm	MasteringAstronomy "Homework #5"	Y	5	--	on MA
6	Sep. 19 12:30pm	Ranking Task "Seasons"	N	--	you can write your answers on a separate sheet	x
7	Sep. 22 12:30pm	Ranking Task "Moon Phases"	Y	5	you can write your answers on a separate sheet	x
8	Oct. 1 12:30pm	Concept Map on Copernican Revolution	N	--	write your answers on a separate sheet	x
9	Oct. 3 12:30pm	MasteringAstronomy "Homework #9"	N	--	--	on MA
10	Oct. 13 12:30pm	MasteringAstronomy "Homework #10"	N	--	--	on MA
11	Oct. 20 12:30pm	MasteringAstronomy "Homework #11"	Y	5	--	on MA
12	Oct. 13 12:30pm	Vote on topics	N	--	use either the sheet provided or your own piece of paper	x
13	Oct. 20 12:30pm	Prather et al. pp. 69-72, "Analyzing Spectra"	Y	5	--	x
14	Oct. 24 12:30pm	Ranking Task "Doppler Shift"	N	--	you can write your answers on a separate sheet	x
15	Oct. 29 12:30pm	Mastering Astronomy "Homework #15"	Y	5	--	on MA
16	Nov. 7 12:30pm	worksheets on Greenhouse Effect	tbd	tbd	--	--
17	Nov. 14 12:30pm	Mastering Astronomy "Homework #17"	Y	5	some notes	on MA
18	Nov. 19 12:30pm	Mastering Astronomy "Homework #18"	Y	5	--	on MA
19	Nov. 24 12:30pm	Mastering Astronomy "Homework #19"	Y	5	--	--

Supplementary Material -- useful things to study that augment the material from class.

Chapter 17
- On MasteringAstronomy there is a tutorial entitled "Hubble's Law" that you might find helpful.
- There are 3 self-test "quizzes" on MasteringAstronomy. Questions that are relevant for what we've covered are: Basic Skills/Definitions Quiz: Parts A, B, D, E, F, G, H, I, L, M. Conceptual Quiz: Parts A, B, E, F, G, H, I, J, L, N. Visual Quiz: Parts A, D, E, F, G, J.
Chapter 16
- On MasteringAstronomy there are two tutorials -- entitled "Fate of the Universe" and "Detecting Dark Matter in Spiral Galaxies" that you might find helpful.
- Those animations that I showed in class of dark matter's effects on background galaxies are viewable from here.
- There are 3 self-test "quizzes" on MasteringAstronomy. Questions that are relevant for what we've covered are: Basic Skills/Definitions Quiz: Parts A, B, C, D, E, F, H, I, L, N, P, Q, R. Conceptual Quiz: Parts A, B, C, D, G, H, J, K, N, O, P. Visual Quiz: Parts A, B, E, F, H, I, J.
Chapter 13
- There are 3 self-test "quizzes" on MasteringAstronomy. Questions that are relevant for what we've covered are: Basic Skills/Definitions Quiz: Parts A, B, C, H, I, J, K, M, N, O, P, Q, S. Conceptual Quiz: Parts B, I, J, M, N, O. Visual Quiz: Parts D, E, F, G.
- On MasteringAstronomy there is a tutorial entitled "Black Holes" that you might find helpful. Don't worry if you don't understand everything in Lesson 2, we're not covering that in class.
Chapter 7
- There are 3 self-test "quizzes" on MasteringAstronomy. Questions that are relevant for what we've covered are: Basic Skills/Definitions Quiz: Parts A, B, C, D, I, K, L, T, U, W, X, Z. Conceptual Quiz: Parts B, D, E, G, H, L, Q, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y. Visual Quiz: Parts B, H, I.
- On MasteringAstronomy there is a tutorial entitled "Surface Temperature of Terrestrial Planets" that you might find helpful. It goes into a lot more detail than we did in class or that's covered in the textbook, but it's very informative. It's useful to try it out. Let me know if you get very befuddled by it.
- Here is a webpage that lists a bunch of info about the planets in our Solar System. It is more for your info than for you to study.
Chapter 5
- Here is a little write-up/tutorial on continuous spectra.
- There are tutorials on MasteringAstronomy relevant to this chapter: "Light and Spectroscopy," and "Doppler Effect". Not everything in those three are applicable to the course though. Within lesson 3 of "Light and Spectroscopy," you can safely ignore the discussion of electron energy levels. The other parts of this lesson are OK though. In the exercises of that tutorial, question 5 is kind of confusing, and you can skip question 7. In lessons 1 and 2 of "Doppler Effect," you can do the math-oriented questions because of the slider bars but I wouldn't ask you to calculate something like this on a test. You should focus instead on why the answers are what they are.
- Some of the other Prather et al. pages you might want to try are 45-47. The solutions are available.
- Seeing things in the infrared: websites shown in class are here and here.
- There are 3 self-test "quizzes" on MasteringAstronomy. Questions that are relevant for what we are covering on test #2 are listed as follows. Basic Skills/Definitions Quiz: Parts A, B, C, E, H, J, L, M, N, O. Conceptual Quiz: Parts B, C, E, F, J, K, L, M. Visual Quiz: Parts A, B, C, D, E, G, H.
Chapter 4
- I have posted a little tutorial and worksheet on how a planet's gravity changes if you change the radius and/or mass.
- There is a tutorial on MasteringAstronomy called "Motion and Gravity" that you may find useful. Not all of it is relevant to what we covered in class though; focus on the Introduction, Lesson 2, Exercises 1 through 7, and the Summary.
- Here are a couple extra worksheets about gravity. And here are the solutions.
- There are 3 self-test "quizzes" on MasteringAstronomy. Questions that are relevant for what we've covered are listed as follows. Basic Skills/Definitions Quiz: Parts A, D, E, O, S. Conceptual Quiz: Parts A, B, C, D, E, L, R, S. Visual Quiz: Parts A, H, I, J.
Chapter 3
- If you want to get a better understanding of why retrograde motion the phenomenon happens and why it doesn't really mean that planets have to physically go backwards in the orbit, check out this animation. (It is also possible to show retrograde motion using Stellarium or Voyager SkyGazer.) Mars and Earth go around their orbits, but watch what happens when Earth starts to lap Mars. We catch up and speed by it. While this happens Mars is still moving forward along its orbit but to us it seems to be going backwards. This is similar to you driving on the road and passing another car. You know the other car is moving forward too, but to you it looks like its going backwards.
- Here is a set of extra worksheets on Kepler's laws. Note that while Exercise #4 might require a tiny bit of math, I won't ask you such math as intensive as this on an exam. Here are the solutions.
- There is a tutorial on MasteringAstronomy entitled "Orbits and Kepler's Laws." You should try this out.
- There are 3 self-test "quizzes" on MasteringAstronomy. Questions that are relevant for what we've covered are listed as follows. Basic Skills/Definitions Quiz: Parts A, B, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, M, N, O. Conceptual Quiz: C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N. Visual Quiz: C, D, E, F, H, I, J.
Chapter 2
- There is a movie, "The Celestial Sphere," on MasteringAstronomy that gives an explanation of this construct. Ignore the talk in part 2 about "declination" and "right ascension". (Go to "Study Area" and then click on "Movies.")
- There is an interactive figure on MA about the celestial sphere -- figure 2.10. This is the same figure I showed in class. Instructions are here.
- If you bought the textbook, it came with a CD of software called "Voyager SkyGazer". It's kind of a planetarium software that you can use this to visualize what's going on in the night sky. Some instructions are here. Note that you can also download free planetarium software from various places that's just as good. You can try them out to see which you like best: Stellarium, Skychart, Carinasoft. You may have also heard of Google Sky -- here's an instructional video -- which is cute to play with but not quite what we need.
- In the Prather et al. workbook, pages 3 through 6 ("Motion") are useful. The solutions are here. Other pages to look into: pages 83 through 85, 88 through 93. Solutions are here and here.
- There are 3 self-test "quizzes" on MasteringAstronomy. Questions that are relevant for what we've covered are listed as follows. Basic Skills/Definitions Quiz: Parts B, C, D, G, H, I, K, L, N, O, P; Conceptual Quiz: A, C, E, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, O; Visual Quiz: A, B, D, E, F, G, H, J.
- There are three tutorials on MasteringAstronomy that will help you: "Seasons", "Eclipses", and "Phases of the Moon".
- You might play around with this "path of the Sun" animation to get a better sense of where the Sun is in the sky for various locations on Earth and days of the year. Note that it's similar to interactive figure 2.10 (see above), but it has some info that's specific to the Sun. Instructions are here.
Chapter 1
- There is a tutorial on MasteringAstronomy on the scale of the Universe. Don't worry too much about the details of the math, but do try to understand the differences in scales.
- In the Prather et al. workbook, pages 123-125 are useful. The solutions are here.
- There are 3 self-test "quizzes" on MasteringAstronomy. Questions that are relevant for what we've covered are listed as follows. Basic Skills/Definitions Quiz: Parts B, C, D, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, O; Conceptual Quiz: Parts A, B, D, E, F, H, I; Visual Quiz: Parts A, B, C, E.

Exam info:

Test 1 on Sept 24. Scores on Test #1 are on myUCF. There are two columns -- one lists the number of questions you got right (out of 37), and the other lists how many points you get from that result. To convert from one to the other, points = ( # right + 3 ) * 100 / 37. You can check out the solutions to the test here.
Test 2 on Oct 31. Scores on Test #2 are on myUCF. There are two columns -- one lists the number of questions you got right (out of 37), and the other lists how many points you get from that result. To convert from one to the other, points = ( # right + 1 ) * 100 / 37. You can check out the solutions to the test here.

homepage