Space shuttle, what a machine!

What a great machine. Leaves orbit at 8:29 AM while over Indonesia, south Pacific, then lands safely 75 minutes later at Kennedy.



Nice.

More digital video of the hair experiments

Here are Lydia, Michelle and Madeleine donating their hair styles to scientific experimentation with the van de Graaff generator.

Gabrielle and William defeat the Faraday cage.

Science experts William and Gabrielle find a way to defeat the Faraday cage in morning lecture yesterday.



Also in iTunes U. Excellent.

Homework

You guys have worked HARD this semester, and we are now looking good for a leisurely stroll through the last chapter of the semester, "Electromagnetism."

Therefore, by the power vested in me by the Sunshine State, I hereby declare:

Your homework this weekend is

1. Chow down with family and friends for Thanksgiving Day.
2. Reach out a generous helping hand to the needy or lonely.
3. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

See you on Monday.

When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.

HW ready

Make sure to look over the podcast when it is ready and/or the doc cam files for Nov. 23, before you tackle Homework 24. There are two brain burners.

Parallel circuit and the brightness level of the light bulbs

Another crude but effective video from yesterday.



Thanks to Gloria S. for operating the HD cam. Good work, Gloria!!

P.S. I will drop the videos into iTunes U as soon as I drive up to campus this morning.

Combo circuit demonstration video, various formats

Crude but effective high-def 1080p video from today's lecture demonstration is now up. First up: the series of two light bulbs. You can view the YouTube version here or the higher quality version in iTunes U.

1. "Demonstrations" which holds the larger format video, or
2. "Demonstrations-mobile" which contain the smaller file "mobile" version, which might be faster if you are on iPhone.

Exam 3 is UP.

I just uploaded your scantron scores for Exam 3. The score is out of 40, since we did not use CPS, only scantron. I will be working on the gradebook here in Webcourses so that you can see your "best two out of three midterms" subtotal.

CPS threshhold

Right now, if you have 99 CPS answered, or more, you are on track for getting 24/24 points on your semester grade. That means you could have missed 16 questions -- one pre-exam SMA review, or about 3 average lectures.

If you have 95 CPS answered, or more, by my rounding up method, you also will get 24/24.

At 94 CPS answered, you will nab 23/24 for your semester grade. In general, if you are below 99 right now, you must solve this proportion:

yay

Friday's lecture is up on iTunes U now.

Homework 23

GO for launch on homework now. HW 23 requires a bit of reading in chapter 21 before you light into it.

This assignment is due on Monday, usual time.

Friday lecture podcast is up not up.

Friday's lecture is uploading now onto iTunes U, kind of poky, but it ought to be up in a few minutes.

Unfortunately, the upload speed into the iTunes U server is down to 1 kb per century, approximately. :(

Somewhere, the internet is running on citrus batteries, I guess.

So I will try to upload it later.

No news on exams yet

No news on exam scores yet. Scantron machines need to be dealt with. Bah!

Exams are getting scored; see you Friday for lecture.

Exams are in the process of being graded. Perhaps by Friday at lecture, we will have printouts.

By the way, Friday's lecture will have a battery demonstration and we will record in high-def digital video again, with volunteers from the audience. No sparks but definitely interesting.

Monday and Wednesday lectures next week will also have some demonstrations with cell phones and other electric systems. The cell phone demonstration will totally psych your mind.

Today's lecture is up on iTunes U.

Today's lecture on the electric field is now up on iTunes U.

Today's SMA study guide is up.

Your scores for today's SMA session are now UP. Also, the SMA study guide is up in the CPS area, blue mailbox icon.

Last SSG now open.

Penelope's SSG is now open for latecomers. Slide over to Webcourses and snag a spot, FAST!

Her group meets at 8 PM tonight, at the library.

Homework and CPS updates

I just updated all the HW and CPS scores in Webcourses. Right now you have

1. 234 homework points
2. 101 CPS points.

At semester's end, we will convert CPS scores to 24 points on the semester grade, as lined out in the syllabus. For CPS, you will get all 24 points if you have answered 85% of the questions, either right or wrong. So if your "CPS answered running subtotal" reads 85 or more today, you have a lock on the 24 points for now. However, we have about 8 more lectures, so that result can change between now and the end of the semester.

For homework, you just go by the straight percentage. E.g., if you have 204 HW points today, that is about 87% of the homework and you get 14 out of 16 points on your semester grade.

CPS and HW points come in right handy this time of the semester.

Early Bird Special

I just activated another Monday afternoon special study group. It's 4:45 PM at the Library, the Early Bird Special. If you have not gotten signed up yet, get into Webcourses and snag a spot with the William's group!

Lydia and the van de Graaff generator

Sweet video from the afternoon section yesterday.

SSG signups ready

Special Study Groups for Exam 3 are now ready for signups. GO GO GO!

Homework is so lovely, so fine.

Your 22nd homework assignment is now UP. I recommend that you read the pages 411-414 carefully before you tackle this assignment. It is due Monday at the usual time.

I am going to start getting SSG signups ready next. Hopefully by lunchtime or early afternoon I will open SSG signups.

Infra red

We spoke on Monday about thermal radiation as a tool for studying weather, focused mainly on water's spectrum.

Recently NASA crashed a spacecraft into a crater near the moon's south pole. Looking at the spectra of the ejecta from the crash landing, NASA scientists now reckon they have detected a good amount of water. Interesting.

S.I. Review next Monday night

Gloria Scott will hold the S.I. review next Monday night, 6:00-8:00 PM, in PSY108.

We are attempting to schedule the SSG sessions at other times, not conflicting with S.I. review, so that you can possibly go to S.I. review AND to an SSG session.

APOD: Scale of Earth-moon system and a Saturn-moon system

Earlier this semester, we studied the true scale of the Earth-moon system. It is tough to get a good photo of Earth and our moon together, but here is one of Saturn and one of its moons, Tethys, that little blip halfway out and below the rings. Click for full size view. Again, it is plain to see that a moon and its planet are very different sizes. Excellent.

SSG leaders

SSG leaders, I will be sending you a course mail message later today, in Webcourses.

No homework

No homework today. See you on Friday for regular lecture, and for more discussion of electrostatic forces.

CPS

Starting today, you are to consider a CPS device to be the equivalent of a scantron exam form. Therefore, operating someone else's CPS response pad is considered cheating.

I do not want to EVER see anyone operating two CPS response pads in lecture.

Hurricane Ida

500 mile radius circle:
its center is Huricane Ida, the red circle just east of Cancun;
it curves a bit beyond Miami and not quite as far as Orlando.

Here are some of this morning's specs on Hurricane Ida.  Note the central pressure, 983 millibars.

ESTIMATED MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE 983 MB
EYE DIAMETER 20 NM
MAX SUSTAINED WINDS 80 KT WITH GUSTS TO 100 KT.
64 KT....... 15NE 0SE 0SW 15NW.
50 KT....... 40NE 30SE 20SW 30NW.
34 KT.......120NE 70SE 40SW 90NW.
12 FT SEAS..150NE 120SE 75SW 150NW.
WINDS AND SEAS VARY GREATLY IN EACH QUADRANT. RADII IN NAUTICAL
MILES ARE THE LARGEST RADII EXPECTED ANYWHERE IN THAT QUADRANT.

A fair day at sea level has a pressure rating of 1013 millibars. Right now, Miami is reporting 30.06 inches, 1018 mb; Orlando is reporting 30.18 inches, 1022 mb. So right now: ΔP = -35 mb from Orlando to the eye of Hurricane Ida. That is only a 3.4% dip, yet it is an enormous change in the weather. Total distance from Orlando to the eye is approximately 580 miles. Excellent.

Hurricane Ida to Orlando

---

1. National Hurricane Center
2. Orlando weather data
3. Computer models: where will it go?
4. Weather Channel update

Air pressure, the source of the F = ma that lifts a 747 carrying the space shuttle into flight. Amazing.

Friday's lecture podcast is UP -- as a video.

I made an experimental video version of Friday's lecture, based on Apple Keynote. It is regular audio on top of Keynote slides, mixed down into a Quicktime movie. For this reason, it is about 187 Mb in size... a hefty download.

Because it is so large, I slapped it into a new, special tab on our iTunes U page, as shown in the diagram: "Video lecture." It is significantly different from the enhanced audio podcasts from previous lectures. I am not sure yet if I like it, so see how you like it. Remember, we are the pioneers on iTunes U at UCF, so we have to sort out the good from the bad.

P.S. I still have a few regular enhanced audio podcasts to upload, from earlier in the week, Nov. 4 and Nov. 2!

Homework 21 has 10 questions.

Homework 21 is ready now. It has 9 regular type questions and one brain burner. HW 21 is due on Monday at the usual times.

GO TO IT!!!

Homework 20 will go active at noon today.

Your next homework, HW 20, will open for business at noon today. It will be due at the usual times on Friday.

HW 19 do-over

You can make another attempt on HW 19 to correct your score. It will stay open for business until 7 PM, Friday.

Homework 19 ready to go.

Your 19th homework assignment is now ready to go. It has a nice combo section that walks you through a full buoyancy force problem. It is due on Wednesday at the usual time.

Excellent meteor shower from direction of constellation Leo

Coming up in a few weeks is the Leonid meteor, best viewing between midnight and dawn, looking toward constellation Leo. Very cool. It is actually the leftovers of a comet that passes near Earth's orbit and leaves a trail of debris behind.

Excellent.