Fall 2005 announcements

Physics 55 Announcements, Fall 2005

The final exam will be in Gross 107 (the big lecture room in Chemistry) on Thursday, December 15, from 2-5 pm. The exam will not be in Physics 113, since there are not enough seats to allow empty seats between all students. This exam will be cumulative and will cover the entire course, although there will a bit more emphasis on material since the midterm. I will email further information about the exam this coming weekend.
"I want answers!" As you review for the final exam, post any questions that you might have on this Blackboard Discussion Board and I or your classmates will try to answer them. I will also use this Discussion Board to collect questions to go over for the review session I plan to hold.
OBSERVATION REPORTS ARE DUE IN CLASS THIS FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9! This is a hard deadline, anything after this time will not be graded.
Assignment 11, the last assignment is now available here. The assignment is a shorter and easier one, consisting mainly of "reasonable or unreasonable" questions to help you test your understanding of the reading. It is due at my office this Friday night by 11:59 pm. If I am not in my office when you come by, you can slide it under my office door.
Course evaluations to fill out on Monday, December 5 Please make sure to come to class on December 5 so that you can fill out the course evaluations that is requested by Duke for each class. This is your chance to improve the quality of courses for future Duke students.

What to read in the text:
1. Pages 636-645 of Section 20.3, on Hubble's law.
2. Pages 685-687 of Chapter 22 (but skip Mathematical Insight 22.2), and Sections 22.4 and 22.6.
3. Section S4.2, pages 478-481.
4. Chapter 23 "The Beginning of Time".
5. Section 24.3, "Life Around Other Stars". This section is a nice way to apply many of the concepts that you have learned over the course.

Required tutorials: In parallel with this reading, please go through the following tutorials on the Astronomy Place website :

Spacecraft Stares at the Sun to Stand Guard for the Earth, NY Times article December 13, 2005, about SOHO satellite that has provided valuable information about the Sun for a decade.
Huygens on Titan, Web Focus Nature article about recent scientific results obtained from the Huygens probe that descended to the surface of Saturn's moon Titan (which some of you saw during recent observations). The articles are for scientists rather than the general public but should still give you a sense of the questions currently being asked and partically answered.
Warping Light From Distant Galaxies Is More Than a Pretty Halo, NY Times article, December 6, 2005. A rather timely article given Monday's lecture, about the bending of light by the mass of distant galaxies and how the degree of bending gives valuable information about what kind of matter exists in the galaxy.
Go West, Young Astronaut, NY Times article, December 6, 2005 about growing success of private efforts to put people into space.