1 / 22

ISP 205: Visions of the Universe

Join Professor Gary D. Westfall, a Nuclear Physicist, in an exciting course about the universe around us. Learn through lectures, collaborative learning, and hands-on activities. Assessment includes homework, electronic postings, quizzes, and exams.

pinder
Télécharger la présentation

ISP 205: Visions of the Universe

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. ISP 205: Visions of the Universe • Goal • To learn about the universe around us • Astronomy • Have fun • Method • Lectures • Collaborative learning • Hands-on activities • Assessment • Homework • Electronic postings • Quizzes and exams Lecture 1

  2. Your Professor • Gary D. Westfall, Ph.D. • Nuclear Physicist • Studies equation of state of nuclear matter • Experiments at MSU • Superconducting Cyclotrons • Studies the quark gluon plasma • Experiments at Brookhaven National Laboratory • Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider - RHIC • Experimentalist • Teaching physics at MSU since 1987 • Teaching astronomy since Spring, 2001 Lecture 1

  3. Course Resources • Materials • Book • Voyages through the Universe • Fraknoi, Morrison, Wolff • CD • Redshift - College Edition • Walker • CYBER SKY (alternate, free 21 day demo) • THE SKY ($120) • Web site • http://www.nscl.msu.edu/~westfall/isp205/isp205.htm • Personalized homework • CAPA Lecture 1

  4. Assignments • Homework assignments are important in the final grade. Students are expected to solve problems and answer qualitative questions in a weekly, personalized assignment. • Students complete the assignments by entering answers through the campus computer network or the web. • Instructions for using the Computer Assisted Personal Assignments (CAPA) system are included in handouts. • Students are encouraged to work together on the homework, but each student’s answers will different and must be entered individually. A calculator will be necessary to answer some of the problems. Lecture 1

  5. Basis for the Grade • The final grade will be constructed from the student’s performance on homework, quizzes, and exams. There will be 3 midterm exams. • A student can be excused from an exam for medical reasons or severe personal difficulties. A signed letter will be necessary to be excused. A student cannot be excused from more than one exam. • If the student has taken all the exams and is happy with his/her grade, the student does not need to take the final exam. If the student takes the final exam and has taken all 3 midterm exams, the lowest exam score will be dropped. • There will be a graded quiz or exercise during every lecture. No makeup for in-class work will be given. Lecture 1

  6. Basis for the Grade, Cont. • During the term, extra credit work will be assigned and will be added to the homework score. Approximately the equivalent of 20 homework points will be made available. • Grade calculation: • Homework assignments 35% • Midterm exams and Final exam, 20% each (the highest 3 scores are counted) • In-class quizzes and exercises 5%. The lowest 7 quiz scores (out of 25 total) will be dropped. No quiz/exercise make-ups will be given. • Grade scale: The grade scale is guaranteed. The actual scale may be lowered from these values but will not be raised. Lecture 1

  7. Grade Scale • 0.0 – 0.0 to 47.5 • 1.0 – 47.5 to 55.0 • 1.5 – 55.0 to 62.0 • 2.0 – 62.0 to 68.0 • 2.5 – 68.0 to 76.0 • 3.0 – 76.0 to 83.0 • 3.5 – 83.0 to 90.0 • 4.0 – above 90.0 Lecture 1

  8. Exams • Date, Time, and Place of Exams: • Midterm Exam #1 • Monday, September 24, 7:00 pm, Room 118, Physics-Astronomy Building • Midterm Exam #2 • Monday, October 29, 7:00 pm, Room 118, Physics-Astronomy Building • Midterm Exam #3 • Monday, December 3, 7:00 pm, Room 118, Physics-Astronomy Building • Final Exam • Monday, December 10, 8:00 - 10:00 pm, Room 118, Physics-Astronomy Building • Exams will all be multiple choice and computer-graded Lecture 1

  9. CAPA Homework • Each student will have personalized homework assignments • You can access CAPA with a simple terminal emulator or through the WWW using a browser • For example, to access CAPA using a browser • Point your browser to: http://capa4.nscl.msu.edu/class.html • Select isp205s1 from the Class pop-up menu. • Enter your Student Number, then the CAPA ID that is printed at the top of each assignment. • Click on the appropriate button to try your set. Lecture 1

  10. Homework Notes • If you lose your HW paper you can work the assignment on the www. To get your PIN for the week you will need your student number and a PIN from a previous week’s assignment. Go to http://capa4.nscl.msu.edu/capa-bin/emailid.html   to get your new PIN. • You may repeat the problems you missed 30 times and still get full credit. After an ‘incorrect’ response, a hint may be available. It is viewed by selecting :H in telnet, and appears automatically on the www. You may login/logout as many times as you wish. Once a problem is correct, credit cannot be lost. • Do not open multiple sessions or browsers. • Clicking the browser’s "Reload/Refresh" button right after submitting an incorrect answer re-submits that incorrect answer and uses up a Try. • Selecting the Discuss button allows you to post questions and help on the homework. If you are having trouble with a problem this is a good way to get help. Lecture 1

  11. Assessment • We will give a quiz and the beginning of class (today) and give the same quiz at the end of the semester • The quiz is a sample of the material covered in the course • The first step is a quiz in class today • This quiz will be graded and will count only as extra credit • This quiz will be given again later to assess our teaching techniques Lecture 1

  12. Contact Information • Professor Gary D. Westfall • 208 Cyclotron • Office phone • 333-6324 off campus • 355-9671, extension 324 on campus • Fax: 353-5967 • Email: westfall@nscl.msu.edu • Home (emergencies) • Phone: 347-1878 • Fax: 347-3286 Lecture 1

  13. The Nature of Astronomy • The study of objects outside the Earth’s atmosphere and processes by which these objects interact with each other • Humanity’s efforts to organize a clear history of the universe • When we look up, we see a universe that is evolving Lecture 1

  14. The Nature of Science • Science accepts nothing on faith • Science is a method as well as a body of knowledge • New ideas are proposed and tested • Hypotheses • Science is the continuous process of proposing and testing hypotheses Lecture 1

  15. The Laws of Nature • Fundamental principles extracted from many observations are called “laws” • The same “laws” apply everywhere in the universe • These laws cannot be suspended or ignored • Laws can be modified and changed as new observations are made and hypotheses are tested • Most laws are expressed with mathematical equations • In this course we will use very few equations Lecture 1

  16. Numbers in Astronomy • In studying astronomy we often deal with large numbers • Suppose we want to write the distance from the Earth to the Sun • 93,000,000 miles • 93 million miles • 93 x 106 miles • 9.3 x 107 miles or 9.3E7 miles • Small numbers use negative exponents • 0.00045 • 4.5 x 10-4 Lecture 1

  17. Light Years • A light year is a unit of distance • A light year is the distance light travels in a year • Light travels 3 x 108 meter/second (186,000 miles per second) • A year has 365 days x 24 hours/day x 60 minutes/hour x 60 seconds/minute = 31536000 seconds • A light year is then 31536000 s times 3 x 108 meters/second = 9.46 x 1015 meters = 9.46 x 1012 kilometers = 5.88 x 1012 miles • That’s 6 trillion miles • A long way Lecture 1

  18. The Speed of Light/Travel Time • The finite (but fast) speed of light means that travel to distant objects will take a long time • Any information we receive from distant objects can only get to us at the speed of light • We will see a distant object as it existed when the light began its journey to us • When an object travels near the speed of light time “slows down” compared with the background universe - Einstein’s special relativity • If we can travel close to the speed of light, we can “go forward” in time • We can’t go back in time Lecture 1

  19. A Tour of the Universe • Earth • Planet 13,000 km in diameter • Moon • Our nearest astronomical neighbor • 384,000 km away • The diameter of the moon is 3476 km, 1/4 of the Earth • Light takes 2.6 seconds to travel from the Earth to the Moon and back Lecture 1

  20. Earth in Orbit • The Earth orbits the Sun, 93 million miles away • 150 million kilometers • It takes 8 minutes for light to get from the Sun to the Earth • The distance from the Earth to the Sun is called an astronomical unit (AU) • The Earth takes 1 year or 3 x 107 seconds to go around the sun • The Earth is traveling 110,000 km/hour or 66,000 miles per hour around the sun Lecture 1

  21. The Solar System • There are nine planets orbiting the Sun along with their associated moons • Mercury • Venus • Earth • Mars • Jupiter • Saturn • Uranus • Neptune • Pluto Lecture 1

  22. Milky Way • Our sun is 1 of 200 billion stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way • The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy 100,000 light years in diameter • The Sun is 30,000 light years from the center of the Galaxy Lecture 1

More Related