Welcome to the start of a new semester! A note to my retiring astronomy students: Unless you would like to continue reading the witty banter available through this blog, you might want to unsubscribe using the link at the bottom of the emails you receive.
This week in physics: Be sure to have watched all podcasts from the energy unit up through podcast 11 by Monday. We will work on assignment 2 in class on Monday, and what is not finished in class is due as homework for Tuesday. Following completion of the assignment we’ll have a quiz over the topics of work and the work-energy theorem. The next topic is the Law of Conservation of Mechanical Energy, and you should watch the following podcasts by the date assigned in your class:
- Energy Podcast 12 – Conservation of Energy
- Energy Podcast 13 – Conservation of Energy Sample Problem 1
- Energy Podcast 14 – Conservation of Energy Sample Problem 2
We’ll complete assignment 3 and assignment 4 in short order with a quiz mixed in. Expect the unit test early next week. After that, we’ll gather some…MOMENTUM! 🙂
This week in astronomy: Welcome to the course! This week we will go over course details and take a preassessment early in the week. Immediately thereafter we will begin mapping the sky and identifying stars in the planetarium. As homework be sure to watch Celestial Sphere Podcast 1 – Star Mapping to support our work in class. This will be fun!
Cool Science of the Week: In the spirit of welcoming new students to astronomy, check out this “Animated Flight through the Universe” based on a montage of telescopic images of 400,000 galaxies. If you own even 1/4 of the nerdy factor that I do, it will make you think of this scene from Star Wars Episode II:
A special thank you goes to Mrs. Cruz for sending in the link to this animation!
More cool science: Some of you met Mr. Wilson’s planet-hunter friend, astronomer Nate Kaib, when he visited in December. Well, MSNBC just did a write-up on his work. It’s like you know someone famous-ish! Check it out!
