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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.

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ISP 205: Visions of the Universe

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  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

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