Astronomy 110 Schedule, Announcements, and Assignments for MW class

Fall, 2009 - Dr. Ross Cohen

There will be a quiz at the end of class!

The quiz will cover units (fundamental units and special astronomical units), the size scale of objects in the Universe (in general terms; numbers not needed), scientific notation, the year, and the phases of the Moon and lunar months..  You will need a grademaster form 25420.  That lets you answer A,B,C,D not 1,2,3,4

There are not many review questions in the book on these topics, so keep in mind that the review questions are not at all a complete guide to what to study.  The "Key Words" and/or "Key Items" are also important. When considering what topics to cover, give the greatest weight to what we studied in class, as outlined in the power point handouts. 

7th and 8th edition

On units, see " What did you think?"#6 and review question  #13 in Ch. 2.

On scientific notation, see "Try these questions" in Appendix A.

On the year and the Moon, see chapter 1: What Did You Know?  6.  Review Questions  4,  19, 20.

Homework has been assigned, due on the 16th.  See below.

There will be a quiz at the end of class!

See your syllabus for the correct Grademaster form!

The quiz will cover the rest of chapter 1.  The general topics are: the day, the celestial sphere and the important lines on it, seasons,  precession, and eclipses. 

Remember, what we cover in class is important.  Topics in the book that we do not mention in lecture are probably not being covered.  The review questions below are the relevant questions in the book, but the book does not have a complete set of questions.  The "Key Words" and/or "Key Items" are also important.

7th and 8th edition, chapter 1 (brackets [ ] means 8th edition only):
What Did You Know? 3, 4, [8].  Review Questions 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 13, 15, 17, 21, 22, 24, 25, 27, 33, 38.

There will be a quiz at the end of class!

See your syllabus or above for the correct Grademaster form!

The quiz will cover Chapter 2: Ptolemy and geocentric cosmology, Copernicus and heliocentric cosmology, Tycho, Galileo's observations, Kepler's laws, and also scientific theories.  Newton and inertia, gravity, and orbital motion (plus how people were led astray about orbits by the old, incorrect, ideas of motion) will NOT be covered on the quiz, but you can expect it on a later quiz or on the first test.  As always, material from the Starry Night homework turned in on this day could be covered on the quiz.

The book has few review questions on chapter 2.  You should also be able to explain those "key words" and "key ideas" that we covered in class.  Remember that the book does not provide review material on everything we covered.  It is just a start.  If you want more, you can look at the exam review sheets from a previous semester which are also posted. 

7^th and 8^th ed.: Chapter 2, What did you think? 1, 2, 3, 4 Review Questions:  2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11.

There will be a quiz at the end of class!

The quiz will cover waves and light, including the electromagnetic spectrum.  The material on chapter 3 on this quiz will not include telescopes, although that will be on the test.  We have not "quizzed" the material on Newton and gravity from chapter 2.  That will be on the test, however.  If you have the 6th edition or earlier or the 8th edition, the Doppler shift is covered in entirely in chapter 4 (section 4-7 in the 8th ed.)  In the 7th edition, most of the material (but not all) on the Doppler shift is in chapter 3..

The book has few review questions on  the portion of chapter 3 we have covered so far.   You should also be able to explain those "key words" and "key ideas" that we covered in class.  Remember that the book does not provide review material on everything we covered.  It is just a start.  If you want more, you can look at the exam review sheets from a previous semester which are also posted.  HINT: you will have to know the correct order of the different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum.  You might have to know the units of energy and power.

8^th edition: Chapter 3, WDYT? 1, 2, RQ, 13; Chapter 4, RQ 13, 14.

7^th edition: Chapter 3, WDYT? 1, 2, RQ, 9, 14; Chapter 4, RQ 10.

Your third assignment with the "Starry Night" software is due here.

Test on chapters 1-3. 

Here is the review sheet. 
 

You will need the large grademaster form (27640). 

There will be a quiz at the end of class!

The quiz will cover material on the structure, contents, and formation of the solar system, from Chapter 5 & 9 in the 7^th  and 8^th editions.  This quiz will also cover the meaning of temperature, pressure, and density.  The material on the formation and surface of the Moon and on asteroid collisions will NOT be covered on this quiz, but will be included on a later quiz or test. Planets around other stars will not be on the quiz either. 

In the 8^th edition, this quiz covers 5-1 through 5-5,  9-1 through 9-3, and 9-5 through 9-11.

In the 7^th edition, this quiz covers 5-1 through 5-5, 9-1, and 9-3 through 9-9.

As usual, the "Key Words" and/or "Key Ideas" are important.  Also, see the following review problems from the book.

8^th edition: Ch. 5, What Did You Think? 1 - 3.

                              Review Questions: 1,2,5  (these are by no means complete).

                    Ch. 9, What Did You Think? 1 - 5.

                               Review questions: 1,2,4,7,8,11,13,15,17,19,20.

7^th edition: Ch. 5, What Did You Think? 1 - 4.

                              Review Questions: 1,2,5  (these are by no means complete).

                    Ch. 9, What Did You Think? 1 - 5.

                               Review questions: 1,2,4,5,6,8,9,11,14,17,18.

There will be a test this Wednesday! 

The test will cover everything from the the last test through the material on the Sun that we will cover on Monday!.  Here is the review sheet.  It is almost exactly the same as the old one I posted previously; there is a little more detail on what you need to know about nuclear reactions.  Note that you will be responsible for knowing the basic nuclear reaction that takes place in the Sun, but not the details of the multi-step process.

You will need the large grademaster form (27640). 

You can access Blackboard from the Grossmont College home page, or you can go directly to http://bb.gcccd.net.  To log in, your user id is usually firstname.lastname, and your password is usually your birthday in the fomat mmddyy.  Once you have entered blackboard, you can see your grades using the "View Grades" command on the left hand portion of the window.

The sixth Starry Night exercise due here

There will be a quiz at the end of class

The quiz will cover material from chapter 11 on the properties of stars, the H-R diagram and types of stars, and masses of stars.  The quiz will also include a qualitative (ideas, not numbers) understanding about the relationship between the mass of a star and its main sequence lifetime (covered in class, but not covered in the book until later).  We are not covering magnitudes or the details of how to get an orbit from spectroscopic binaries, but you should know what they refer to.  We will not have questions on the numerical ranges of stellar properties on the quiz, but some could be on the test that covers this material.

As usual, the "Key Words" and/or "Key Ideas" are important.  Also, see the following review problems from the book.

7^th and 8^th eds:Ch. 11, What did you think? 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
      Review Questions:1,3,5,6,7,8,9,12,16,17,19,20,22,25,26,27,28,35,36.

There will be a test this Wednesday! 

Test on the details of the processes in the interior of the Sun, properties of stars and the H-R diagram, how long stars will live, and stellar evolution through the white dwarf stage.  A couple of items have been deleted from the review sheet handed out in class; they are shown on the posted review sheet.  The review sheet is here. 

The seventh Starry Night exercise due here

The final will be from 11:30 to 1:30. 

Note: this is NOT the usual class time.  This is the end of finals week.  Grades will be submitted electronically by the next morning, so there is no opportunity for a makeup final.  If you are absolutely unable to make this time, you must talk to me in advance..

The final will be cumulative and twice as long as the other tests..  About half the material will be on the new material since the last test, and about half will be on material from the entire semester.  The earlier material will not generally be as detailed as the material on the individual tests.

The review sheet is here.