ASTRONOMY 2 --- FALL 2005
OVERVIEW OF THE UNIVERSE
(Call # 10785; Course ID ASTR-002-01)
Instructor: Raja (Puragra) Guha Thakurta
Interdisciplinary Sciences Building (ISB) 271; (831)459-5169; raja@ucolick.org
Office hours: Tue 10:30 - 11:30 AM in ISB 271
Teaching Assistants:
Evan Kirby
ISB 255; (831)459-5772; ekirby@ucolick.org
Office hours: Mon 12:30 - 1:30 PM in ISB 255
Leif Poorman
ISB 292; (831)459-5961; leif@physics.ucsc.edu
Office hours: Tue 6:00 - 7:00 PM in ISB 165
(NOTE: Leif's office hours will NOT be held in his office, but in a DIFFERENT
room)
Sean Echols
NSII 108; (831)459-2166; sechols@physics.ucsc.edu
Office hours: Tue 2:15 - 3:15 PM in NSII 108
UCO/Lick Observatory,
University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Please watch this space especially closely throughout
the quarter. All important new announcements will appear here.
NEW!!!!! Here are the
IN-CLASS QUIZ SCORES.
NEW!!!!! A new practice problem set (#6) is available
here along with a
solution set.
NEW!!!!! Here are the MIDTERM
SCORES.
Five (optional) practice problem sets and solution
sets are listed near the bottom of this page.
The MSI sessions are back on but with a changed
schedule and a different instructor (Rachel Soper has replaced Rebekah
Rafferty). For the new MSI schedule, click here. The discussion sections
(six per week) are continuing as usual.
A plain text version of the class notes is
available below (see Lecture Notes section).
In-class Pop-Quizzes / Response Pads (CPS RF clickers):
This course
will use the Classroom Performance System (CPS) and radio frequency (RF)
response pads or clickers to conduct in-class pop-quizzes. There will
typically be a few such quizzes during each lecture starting in Week 3 - i.e.
from Tue 10/04 onwards. The sum total of all the in-class quizzes will
constitute 20% of the overall grade.
You will need your response pad to participate in these quizzes. Therefore,
it is VERY IMPORTANT that you:
* BUY and REGISTER your response pad right away
* BRING your response pad to class for each lecture
The instructions for registering your response pad can be found
here (MS Word document) along
with an illustrated description of the
step-by-step procedure (PowerPoint format). The CLASS KEY is: M14242E381
- you will need this key to register your response pad.
Introductory Handout:
acrobat (PDF) format
This contains general information about the course, and includes details
about the overall format of this course, exams, in-class quizzes, practice
problem sets, evaluation scheme, textbooks, reading, field trip, etc etc.
PLEASE READ IT VERY CAREFULLY as it is full of useful information for this
course.
Course Calendar:
acrobat (PDF) format
This contains a week-by-week summary of topics to be covered in the course
and the schedule of exams.
Discussion Sections
Evan, Leif, and Sean will run a total of six
(6) discussion sections each week starting the week of 09/26 through the day
of the final exam (12/09).
Mon 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM (Sean, ISB 165)
Mon 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM (Leif, ISB 165)
Tue 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Evan, ISB 356)
Wed 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM (Sean, ISB 165)
Wed 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM (Leif, ISB 165)
Thu 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Evan, ISB 356)
Attendance in these discussion sections is OPTIONAL. We strongly recommend
that you attend if you need clarification/assistance on any of the concepts
or math exercises covered in class.
Office Hours/Appointments
Please let Raja know beforehand (say in
class the previous week or by e-mail) if you plan to attend his office hours.
If the above fixed office hours don't work for you, please arrange to meet us
at other times.
Lecture Notes / Quizzes
The PowerPoint lecture notes that will be
used in class during a given week will generally be available the previous
week at this location. The in-class quizzes will be posted after they have
been used in class.
Week 1 notes
Week 2 notes
Week 3 notes (Part A)
Week 3 notes (Part B)
Week 4 notes
Week 5 notes
Week 6 notes
Week 7 notes
Week 8 notes
Week 9 notes (Part A)
Week 9 notes (Part B)
Week 10 notes
Week 11 notes
Week 3 quizzes
Week 4 quizzes
Week 5 quizzes
Week 6 quizzes
Week 7 quizzes
Week 8 quizzes
Week 9 quizzes
Week 10 quizzes
Week 11 quizzes
A plain text version of the class notes for weeks 2 through 11 are posted
here
These notes (especially the plain text version) only list the basic topics
covered in class and the important equations, but do NOT contain any
descriptive detail. YOU WILL FIND IT DIFFICULT, IF NOT IMPOSSIBLE, TO FOLLOW
THE LECTURE NOTES IF YOU DO NOT COME TO CLASS!!!!
If you are unable to read notes in PowerPoint format from your computer,
please let us know so we can arrange to get you paper copies. The color
illustrations shown in class will however be greatly degraded in the
black-and-white paper copies.
Reading
A week-by-week listing of the reading from the primary
course textbook (Arny) is provided here. While
the reading assignment is optional, we highly recommend that you read the
assigned chapter(s) in the textbook to better follow the material covered in
class.
Practice Problem Sets
A few sample math and descriptive problems
are provided here:
Practice math problem set 1
Solutions to problem set 1
Practice math problem set 2
Solutions to problem set 2
Practice descriptive problem set 3
Solutions to problem set 3
Practice descriptive problem set 4
Solutions to problem set 4
Practice math problem set 5
Solutions to problem set 5
These sample problems are an excellent way to prepare for the midterm
and final exams, which will be the main basis for your evaluation in this
course. Please use these practice problem sets to brush up on math exercises
and concepts covered in class. Evan/Leif/Sean can arrange to go over solutions
to these practice problem sets during discussion sections, if there is enough
interest.
Exam Scores and Grades
Exam scores and corresponding grade levels will appear here. The final exam
will constitute 45% of the overall score/grade and the midterm exam will
constitute 35% of the overall grade; the remaining 20% of the grade
will be based on in-class pop-quizzes. Please pay particular
attention to the passing score for the exams. In addition to your total
score (TTL), the split scores on the descriptive/non-quantitative (DE) and
math/quantitative (MA) portions of the exams are also listed.
Math Help
Suggested steps to solve a math problem
Isolating a variable, part I
Isolating a variable, part II and Powers of 10
Exponents
Unit Conversion
Dividing one fraction by a second fraction
Other Astronomy Links of Interest
Here are a few astronomy links of interest to get you started. Please let us
know if you find other interesting astronomy sites so we add those to this
list!
A
pictorial tour of the Solar System
The Nine
Planets
Astronomy Picture of
the Day
The Best of
Hubble Space Telescope Pictures
W. M. Keck Observatory, home to the world's largest optical telescopes
Our recent press release about the distribution of distant galaxies
including a cool graphic ( low
resolution version and high
resolution version)
Our recent press release about a warp in the Andromeda spiral galaxy
Carl Sagan quote and image of the Earth from the Voyager spacecraft
Poster of Carl
Sagan's: Reflections on a Mote of Dust
This page is maintained by raja@ucolick.org