Astronomy 122: History of Matter--F 2006

Material specific to the fall term, 2006 will be posted shortly. The course was last given in the winter term 2006 and material relevant for that term will be available here until registration is complete for the fall term. If you are interested in Astronomy 122, you may wish to browse the material below. Keep in mind that the most descriptive information will be found toward the bottom of the file.

The most recent entries will be found at the top of this file. If you find errors in the file, please email me so I can correct them.

21 December: The table below presents "adopted" grades for the two presentations, and for the final essay. All scores are based on the 1-5 scheme used throughout the course. I compiled averages for House ratings of questions asked in class, and my own ratings of these questions, as well as class ratings of the answers. The latter were difficult to interpret, since there were many appeals, and sometimes the judge volunteered information without an appeal. These scores were not averaged in numerically, but in several cases they were used as a basis for increasing a letter grade by one unit, that is, from B to B+, or B+ to A-. This was done after the initial grade cuts were made.

Attendance was not uniform, but because it was generally very good, it was not considered in assigning the final letter grade.


ID       P1    P2     Fin   Av  Gr
00596    4.1   4.3    4.3  4.23 A
16596    3.7   3.8    4.5  4.00 A-
18848    4.6   4.5    3.3  4.13 A-
22488    4.3   3.7    2.8  3.60 B+
28065    3.9   4.1    3.1  3.70 B+
36360    3.9   4.0    4.7  4.20 A
38952    4.0   4.6    3.8  4.13 A-
55006    3.8   4.3    4.5  4.20 A
57126    3.9   4.1    2.9  3.63 B+
61249    3.8   3.2    3.1  3.37 B
61289    4.1   4.5    4.8  4.47 A
77448    3.7   3.7    3.9  3.77 B+
83559    4.1   3.8    3.3  3.73 B+
84982    4.0   4.6    3.9  4.17 A-
87129    4.8   4.9    4.8  4.83 A+
95376    3.5   3.1    3.8  3.47 B

20 December: Scores for the second round of presentations follows:


          Stud.  CRC   Adopt
          =================
00596     4.5    4.0   4.3
16596     4.0    3.5   3.8
18848     4.4    4.5   4.5
22488     4.2    3.2   3.7
28065     4.2    4.0   4.1
36360     4.3    3.5   4.0
38952     4.6    4.6   4.6
55006     4.3    4.2   4.3
57126     4.1    4.0   4.1
61249     3.3    2.8   3.2
61289     4.5    4.4   4.5
77448     4.0    3.2   3.7
83559     4.2    3.5   3.8
84982     4.2    4.8   4.6
87129     5.0    4.9   4.9
95376     3.1    3.0   3.1

27 October: The final examination in Astron. 122 is scheduled for 20 December, 10:30am to 12:30pm. It will consist of a 400- to 500-word essay on one of the 10 topics listed below. You will not know which of the topics until the time of the final. Therefore, prepare either in your mind, on paper, or electronic storage, 10 essays, so that you will be prepared write on any of the ten possibilities. Not everyone will write on the same topic.

We can have ONE alternate final exam time, within the regular exam schedule (15, 18-22 Dec.). For this, it will be necessary (1) to make sure classroom spece is available in the time frame 7am-6pm; (2) all students who wish to take the alternate, sign a letter saying they are doing it at their own request (this can be a handwritten note, all just need to sign). The regular exam time will always be an option, but you can't use both times! I suggest one person take responsibility for getting the room scheduled and the letter signed. See our secretary Sarah Lloyd for the room.

Topics for the final are listed below. They are approximately the chapter topics of the web text. Far more than 500 words could be written on any of these topics. For your essay, and also your second presentation, broad coverage is not as important as covering some subtopic well. That means demonstrating an understanding of what you are talking or writing about.

Matter and the Chemical Elements
Atoms, Nuclei, and Abundances
The Synthesis of the Elements in the Big Bang and Stars
Synthesis of Heavy Nuclei
Non-Stellar Nucleosynthesis
Interstellar Clouds--The Birthplace of stars
The Early Solar Nebula
Biography of the Earth and Moon
Life
Chemical Evolution of Galaxies and the Universe

Topics for the second round of reports are as follows:

The Grand Canyon and the Moon: Geological methods applied beyond the Earth. (See the link on my HomePage)
Physiographic provences and geological mapping of the Earth, Moon, Mars, and planetary surfaces.
*James Hutton, Charles Lyell, uniformitarianism and catastrophism; the controversy over the age and history of the Earth.
*Radioactive dating of rocks; fossil dating of layers.
Chemistry in giant molecular clouds: detection of molecules, techniques, chemical reactions in space.
Chemical and mineralogical evolution of rocks. The history of earth materials is written in that composition.
*Harold Urey and the chemistry of planet formation.
*The origin of the Moon. (see Paul Spudis: The Once and Future Moon)
*Carl Sagan and the growth of exobiology.
*Organic and biological chemistry, the chemistry of life.
*Extremophiles, archea, and the classification of life forms.
*Finding and dating the earliest evidence for life on Earth.
*Catalysts, enzymes, and the RNA world.
*Goldilocks theory and the Drake Equation; Newly discovered planets.
*Presolar grains--stardust remnants.
Chemical evolution in the solar neighborhood.
*Chemical history of galaxies.
*The Cosmic Background Radiation
*Dark Matter and Dark Energy: Most of it.
*Chemistry of the most distant systems: quasars and intergalactic clouds.

26 October:

Ratings for first round of presentations. Columns are my rating, class rating, and rating adopted. Usually, the adopted rating is an average, though sometimes one rating or the other has been given a higher weight. From these grades alone, the cut between B+ and A- would be at 3.9 or 4.0. The lowest grade would be a B.

No.     CRC    Class  Adopt
00596   3.6     4.6    4.1
16596   3.5     3.8    3.7
18848   4.5     4.7    4.6
22488   4.0     4.5    4.3
28065   3.6     4.1    3.9
36360   3.5     4.3    3.9
38952   3.7     4.2    4.0
55006   3.5     4.0    3.8
57126   3.5     4.3    3.9
61249   3.4     4.1    3.8
61289   3.7     4.4    4.1
77448   3.5     3.9    3.7
83559   3.8     4.4    4.1
84982   3.3     4.3    4.0
87129   4.9     4.8    4.8
95376   3.3     3.5    3.5

18 October: Ratings of Questions asked in class are listed below by student number (last 5 digits). Also posted are the ratings by questioners of the answers given by the four houses.



The columns give (1) last 4 digits of student number,
(2) Class rating of questions asked in class, and
(3) CRC ratings of questions asked in class.  These
will mostly be averaged, but I reserve the option
to weight my evaluation as much as double.

Don't take these figures too seriously.  There is still
a second round of presentations to come near the end of
the term, and a final.  These will give a better of how
well the course material has been understood.  All too 
often, the questions asked in class have been outside of
the text, or simply too difficult for the Answering house
to be expected to cope.  

St.No. class    CRC
00596  3.00     3.67
16596  2.50     3.33
18848  3.17     3.00
22488  3.40     3.33
28065  4.00     3.00
36360  4.00     2.50
38952  4.00     4.00
55006  4.00     4.00
57126  3.50     2.67
61249  3.17     3.67
61289  4.33     3.00
77448  4.00     3.33
83559  4.00     3.00
84982  3.67     3.33
87129  4.00     4.50
95376  4.00     4.33

Ratings for the answers given by the Answering Houses
are listed below.  These are all student ratings.
There is no rating by CRC for these answers.

Gryffindor   4.11
Rayvenclaw   4.08
Hufflepuff   4.14
Slitherin    4.89

3 October: For class tomorrow, 4 October, read through the section on Gamow's theory of tunneling in Chapter 5.

29 September 2006: Finish Chapter 4 for Monday, Gryffindor's are the answering house.

26 September 2006: The order for class presentations is listed below. Prepare for a 10-12 minute talk with 3 to 5 minutes for questions. If you have not already chosen a topic, pick one from the list below that has not been marked with an asterisk.

He 1
Ditmar 2
Lin 3
Watnick 4
Agha 5
Risedorph 6
Morrison 7
Heath 8
Jakiel 9
Monks 10
Stefanski 11
Hill 12
Bleske 13
Fitts, 14
Solverson 15
LaFrence 16

22 September: Fom Monday, we will finish Chapter 3. We need to get through Chapter 5 before the presentations begin.

Next month, at sometime during the first week in October we will have the first round of presentations. These will be on the topics listed below. The order of the presentations will be made with a random number generator, but the topics themselves will be assigned on a first-come first-serve basis. Topics are listed below. Pick a topic, and email me the title. I'll put an asterisk by the topics that have already been chosen.

Some of the presentations will have to come after the fall study break (16-17 October). If you are assigned a time for your presentation that turns out to be inconvenient, you may exchange the time with anyone willing to swap with you. Do let me know if this happens.

Many presenters either attach a PowerPoint presentation to an email to themselves, or bring a ppt on a flash memory (or memory stick). You may use your own laptop, of course. If you don't want to use electronic media, view graphs, or a chalkboard talk is OK. We'll have 3 presentations per day, so plan on 10 to 12 minutes for the talk and 3 to 5 minutes for setup and questions.

Topics are designated by the letters A-T to avoid confusion with the order of the presentations, which we shall work out very soon.

A. Stellar evolution and the synthesis of the elements through silicon burning. What nuclear processes can lead to energy production? How do these processes leave their imprint on cosmical abundances (SAD)?
B.* The Periodic Table - History, the meaning of its structure. Review as much of the early history of chemistry as you'd like, including such names as Dalton, Boyle, Avogadro, Lavoisier, Meyer.
C.* Fred Hoyle and the steady-state universe. What is the Cosmological Principle? the Perfect Cosmological Principle? Why might one want to postulate the latter? What audacious consequences result from it? What observations led most astronomers to finally abandon the steady state universe as a possibility?
D.* The structure of the Milky Way: gas, dust, stars, clusters, GMC's, central bulge and black hole, spiral arms.
E.* Maria Mayer, magic numbers, and the structure of atomic nuclei. Mayer won a Nobel prize for her co-discovery of what is called the "shell model" of the nucleus. While she was not a crusading feminist, her story is of great moment to those interested in the movement.
F.* The Jovian planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
G.* Shapley-Curtis Debate: (2) Structure of the Milky Way. Review the history. What was the "universe" to Galileo? to 19th century astronomers? to 20th century astronomers? What was the "grindstone" model of the universe, and what were the philosophical implications of the solar system being at its center. What role did dust play in the formulation of this model. Don't confuse this topic with the first Shapley-Curtis Debate (described briefly below).
H. Shapley-Curtis Debate: (1) The nature of the nebulae. Since the use of the spectroscope, it was known that there were two different kinds of fuzzy objects or nebulae in the universe. Shapley and Curtis debated the nature of "white nebulae" that we now call galaxies.
I.* Minor bodies of the solar system: Asteroids, comets, meteoroids and meteorites.
J. The atomic nucleus, its size and role in the atomic structure; isotopes; nuclear energy levels. Yukawa's postulate of the meson; discovery of the neutron. Nuclear reactions: alpha and beta decay. The strong and weak nuclear forces.
K.* Stellar evolution--the birth and death of stars. Review the modern theory. How are stars born. Describe the stages of stellar evolution, from hydrogen and helium burning to stellar explosions and the formation of white dwarfs, neutron stars, or black holes.
L.* George Gamow: his life, his nucleosynthesis and cosmology. Gamow was one of the truly great minds of the 20th century. He worked in physics, astronomy, and even in biology. He wrote some delightful popular books.
M. The idea of cosmical abundances and the emergence of modern nucleosynthesis. How did our ideas of the composition of the sun and stars change from the 19th to the 20th century?
N.* Einstein, E=mc2, and the source of the sun's energy. Review early (19th century) ideas of the origin of the sun's energy. What were some early 20th century ideas. When and how was the current theory established?
O.* Edwin Hubble and the investigation of extragalactic systems.
P.* The terrestrial planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars.
Q.* Discovery of analytical spectroscopy: Lives and discoveries of Bunsen, Fraunhoffer, and Kirchhoff.
R.* Supernovae in astronomy. What are the two basic kinds of supernovae? Type Ia's are now used to probe the structure of the universe. Excluding use of Ia's as cosmological probes (see T below).
S.* Pluto and the Kuiper Belt objects. The discovery and interpretation of distant objects of the solar system.
T.* Supernovae of Type Ia as standard cosmological candles. The re-discovery of the cosmological constant, now known as dark energy.

18 September: For Friday, 22 Sept., read up to, but not beyond, the section in Chapter 3 on Stars and Star Clusters. This Wednesday, 20 Sept., we will review some of the relationships worked out for the distance exercise. Pick one of your own, that you are especially proud of, and we'll discuss as many as we have time for.

11 September: The reading assignment for Wednesday 13 Sep. is Chapter 2, up to (but not including) the section on Satellites and Rings.

9 September: The reading assignment for Monday 11 Sep. is to finish Chapter 1.

7 September: The reading assignment for Friday is Chapter I, through the first 4 paragraphs of the section Regularities in the Periodic Table.

5 September: During class on Wednesday (tomorrow!), we will spend time organizing into the 4 groups or houses. We will begin with a discussion of two essays (see links below). To facilitate the discussion, bring two (2) written questions and/or comments on one or both essays. Be prepared to hand your comments in at the end of class. We will follow this routine whenever there are reading assignments. The first essay is a general discussion of the origin of matter in the Big Bang, and how we think we now what happened at these times. The second essay concerns the nature of a scientific proof. Do feel free to comment on this material. If you disagree with some point, say so, and give your reasons.