A practice final exam to give you an idea of what to expect Tuesday. While I may make small changes to questions from previous exams, and will include 3-4 new questions covering cosmology, the practice exam should closely reflect the topics and difficulty of the final. Good luck! And see you Monday evening for the review.
While it's worthwhile looking up and figuring out answers for yourself to prepare, here's the answer key to the practice final exam: 1. b, 2. a, 3. e, 4. d, 5. b, 6. e, 7. e, 8. b, 9. d, 10. d, 11. d, 12. e, 13. d, 14. b, 15. c, 16. a, 17. c, 18. e, 19. e, 20. e, 21. e, 22. e, 23. c, 24. b, 25. d, 26. a, 27. b, 28. c, 29. c, 30. a, 31. d, 32. d, 33. c, 34. e, 35. d, 36. b (and the question should be "setting at" withing that confusing word "rising!"), 37. a, 38. d, 39. e, 40. c
Not everyone saved their first exam, so here is that file for you. Here is the answer key.
There will be a review session for the final exam on Monday evening, 6:30pm, in PS 234 (same room as last time). Final exam questions will be drawn from tests/practice tests 1-3, plus a few questions about cosmology. A practice final will be posted here, but probably not until Saturday.
Grades going into the final will be distributed Thursday in class. They are out of 100% (in the final calculation they will be 85% of the total grade and the final exam will be 15%, so your final grade will be the preliminary grade x 0.85 + final exam grade x 0.15). If your final exam grade is higher, your score will go up. If your final exam grade is lower, it will go down.
Exam 3 is graded. Average was 67%, so we'll have a 3% curve to move that up to 70%. Add three points to your raw score.
Practice exam 3 is ready for you now here. I will be happy to discuss answers in class and in the review (Wed. evening at 6pm in Physical Sciences (PS) 234, AKA the "Prowse Room."). Answer Key: 1.b 2.e 3.e 4.b 5.e 6.d 7.a 8.b 9.e 10.b (repeat, sorry) 11.a or d (sorry -- bad question) 12.d 13.e 14.d 15.d 16.c 17.c 18.a 19.e 20.b 21.d 22.e 23.e 24.e 25.d 26.d 27.d 28.d (got to watch those d answers!) 29.b 30.d 31.b 32.c 33.c 34.a 35.e 36.c 37.c 38.d 39.e 40.b Topics to be covered: Light (electromagnetic spectrum, black bodies including Wien's Law and Steffan-Boltzmann Law), Stars (H-R Diagram, OBAFGKM, composition, distances, colors, temperatures, luminosities), Stellar evolution (protostars, evolution onto main sequence, off main sequence, planetary nebulas), Stellar End States (white dwarf, neutron star, black hole), Milky Way (size and structure, Cepheid variables, spiral arms, mass and dark matter), other Galaxies (types, clustering, Hubble's Law), active Galaxies (quasars, supermassive black holes, gravitational lensing).
Exam 2 is graded and being returned. It was harder than I expected, with a 65% average, so I will add a 5% curve. Add 5% to your raw percentage score.
Here is practice exam 2 and the answer key. I am traveling, but may be able to answer questions via email. You can also go to your lab instructors for help in advance of the exam.
I have submitted mid-term grades based on your first exam scores plus an average estimate of typical lab and attendance scores. This is probably slightly optimistic. If you scored in in the low 20s (out of 39) on exam 1, score very low on labs, and do not attend class regularly, I may not have indicated an appropriately low mid-term grade and I ask you to be aware if you fall into this category.
Exam 2 on Tuesday 10/23/2012 will only cover solar system and exoplanets material since the last exam. Light will be included on a future exam, where it fits better and merges into stellar properties.
A new exoplanet was found by planethunters.org, a project that lets web surfers examine Kepler data. Cool! Try it yourself!
Here is the (answer key to the first exam if you want to check and see which answers you got wrong.)
The section that meets at 2:45pm in CR 214 will MOVE on Thursday, 9/27, to AG 1032. This room should work better for us in several respects. See you there!
We have an exam next week, Tuesday 9/25, in class. BRING: a blue, 5-answer bubblesheet, a pencil, a calculator. Here is a practice exam to help you study (answer key). (Note: The answer key is wrong for question 26: the correct answer is "b" not "a." Also, yes, questions 34 and 37 are the same, by mistake, with a weird answer d. I'll be more careful with the actual exam!)
Suggested homework problems from your textbook for topics above (9/7): Applying your Knowledge questions 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 1.8 all on page 19. Applying your Knowledge Questions 3.5, 3.7, 3.9 all on page 53. Summary Questions 4.2, 4.3, 4.6 on page 81 and Applying your Knowledge questions 4.5 also on page 81.
Seasons and Phases of the Moon
Suggested homework problems from your textbook for Seasons and Phases (9/14): Summary Questions 4.8, 4.9 on page 81 and Applying your Knowledge questions 4.6, 4.10, 4.12, 4.13 also on page 81.
Suggested homework problems from your textbook for Kepler and Newton(9/21): Summary Questions 5.7, 5.9, 5.9, 5.10 on page 111 and Applying your Knowledge questions 5.5, 5.6, 5.8, 5.9, 5.10 also on page 111.
Suggested homework problems from your textbook. Summary Questions 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.5, 6.8 on page 138 and Applying your Knowledge questions 6.2, 6.7 on page 138.
Suggested homework problems from your textbook. Summary Questions 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.8, 8.9, 8.10 on page 204 and Applying your Knowledge questions 8.1, 8.3, 8.6, 8.7, 8.8 on page 205.
Suggested homework problems from your textbook. Summary Questions 9.1, 9.2, 9.4 on page 240 and Applying your Knowledge questions 9.8, 9.10 on page 241.
Suggested homework problems from your textbook. Summary Questions 10.1, 10.2, 10.4, 10.5, on page 277 and Applying your Knowledge questions 10.5, 10.11 on page 278.
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Light...Maybe
Suggested homework problems from your textbook. Summary Questions 11.3, 11.4, 11.9, on page 301 and Applying your Knowledge questions 11.4, 11.5, 11.6 on page 301. Summary Questions 13.1, 13.2, 13.3, 13.6, on page 351 and Applying your Knowledge questions 13.6, 13.7, 13.10, 13.12 on page 352.
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Stars...Maybe
Suggested homework problems from your textbook. Summary Questions 14.1, 14.2, 14.3, on page 378 and Applying your Knowledge questions 14.10 on page 378. Summary Questions 15.1, 15.2, 15.3, 15.4, 15.5, 15.6 on page 404 and Applying your Knowledge questions 15.1, 15.4, 15.5, 15.9, 15.12 on page 405. Also on page 436, summary questions 16.2, 16.3. On page 464, summary questions 17.3 and 17.4, and Applying your Knlowledge questions 17.5. On page 490-1, Summary questions 18.1, 18.2, 18.3, 18.8, 18.9. On page 523, Summary questions 19.6, 19.9, 19.10, 19.11, and Applying your Knowledge 19.3, 19.7.
The Milky Way and other Galaxies
Suggested homework problems from your textbook. Summary Questions 20.2, 20.7, 20.10, and Applying your Knowledge questions 20.9 on pages 559-560. Summary Questions 21.2, 21.3, 21.5, 21.6, 21.8, 21.10, 21.11 and Applying your Knowledge questions 21.7, 21.9 on page 593. Finally, on page 612-13, Summary questions 22.2, 22.3, 22.4, 22.6 and Applying your Knowledge questions 22.3, 22.6.
| Location | PS 132 |
| Instructors | Shannon
Hall, shall21-AT-uwyo-DOT-edu Dan Gershun, dgershun-AT-uwyo-DOT-edu My Nguyen, mnguyen6-AT-uwyo-DOT-edu |
| Monday | 3:10-5:00pm |
| Tuesday | 1:10-3:00pm, 7:10-9:00pm |
| Wednesday | 1:10-3:00pm, 3:10-5:00pm, 7:10-9:00pm |
| Thursday | 1:10-3:00pm, 3:10-5:00pm, 7:10-9:00pm |
| Syllabi | Shannon Dan My |
| Week | Lab Handout |
| 1: 8/27-8/31 | 1 - Quantitative Techniques |
| 2: 9/04-9/07 | No Lab, Labor Day week |
| 3: 9/10-9/14 | 2 - Planetarium |
| 4: 9/17-9/21 | 3 - Observing on the Roof |
| 5: 9/24-9/28 | 4 - Kepler's Laws |
| 6: 10/01-10/05 | 5 - Observing the Moon |
| 7: 10/08-10/12 | 6 - Extrasolar Planets |
| 8: 10/15-10/19 | 7 - The Electromagnetic Spectrum |
| 9: 10/22-10/26 | 8 - HR Diagram |
| 10: 10/29-11/02 | 9 - Parallax |
| 11: 11/05-11/09 | 10 - Stellar Evolution and Planetary Nebulae |
| 12: 11/12-11/16 | 11 - The Milky Way Galaxy |
| 13: 11/19-11/23 | No Lab, Thanksgiving week |
| 14: 11/26-11/30 | 12 - Hubble's Law |
| 15: 12/03-12/07 | No Lab, last classes |
| 16: 12/10-12/14 | No Lab, Finals week |
Some supplemental items/links: Astronomy Picture of the Day is a great webpage to visit every day.