Bonus points opportunity

I just activated the Discussions area for creating a question for Exam 2. If your suggested question, in multiple choice format, is good enough for me to use on the exam, you will earn one bonus point PLUS you will automatically know one question ahead of time. Nice.

Go give it a shot.

What I am reading

Currently reading for pleasure: Lombardo's translation of the Iliad. Most excellent.

Iliad Homer ; translated by Stanley Lombardo ; introduction by Sheila Murnaghan. Author: Homer Published: Indianapolis : Hackett Pub. Co., c1997. Main Library General Collection - 4th Floor PA4025.A2 L66 1997

One more SSG, plenty of space...for now.

I just activated SSG 19, led by Katherine H. There are some spots, but you have to move fast!

ALSO: there are a few spots in other groups, too, so look carefully!

Angular momentum videos

You now can view the angular momentum demonstrations from Thursday lecture, in iTunes U and in YouTube.



Also available are the last two pendulum videos, as promised.





I will be asking questions about all of these demonstrations on Exam 2.

Signups for SSG start at noon.

I am activating the SSG signups sheet to activate at 12:05 PM today. Get in there and grab a spot.

Homework 10 is ready to go.

OK, long awaited Homework 10 is now ready to go. Be prepared to do some thinking and some calculating. Nothing is too tough, but it will still require that you read carefully and think..

Thursday lecture is UP.

The lecture for Thursday, Feb. 24, is now up, in two parts. The first part, I had to re-record at home. The second part I was able to recover. Good.

Now I will start working on HW 10 for you guys.

Some of the SSG times

Here is a simple table of SSG meeting times. You can check your Sunday and Monday schedules against this table.

Sunday Feb 27, 1 pm.

Sunday 2/27, at 1:30PM.

Sunday, Feb. 27, at 2:00 PM.

Sunday, February 27, at 6pm.

Monday, Feb 28th, 9-10 A.M.

Monday February 28, 2011, 11:30 AM. [two groups]

Monday, Feb. 28th, 12-1p.m.

Monday the 28th, 1:00pm [two groups]

Monday, February 28th, 1:45pm.

Monday, Feb. 28, 2:30-3:30 PM

Monday, 2/28/2011; at 3:00 pm

Monday, February 28th, 7:15 PM.

Monday, February 28th, 8:00-9:00 PM

Monday, February 28, 7:30 PM

Saturday afternoon, you should be able to take a shot at joining one of the SSGs, using the signups page in Webcourses.

Ten degrees

It is interesting to view the tilt angle of the space shuttle main engines.



In this NASA video, you can see about ten degrees of tilt away from the central axis. Think of why this must be done when the solid rocket boosters are still strapped on. Lots of physics concepts -- e.g., impulse -- show up in this one video. Nice.

SSG signups Saturday at noon or so

The plan is for SSG signups to activate tomorrow (Saturday) at about lunchtime, with first SSG sessions set to roll after lunch on Sunday. The signups page will look like this:
(Click for larger view.)

...and you'll be able to view the time and place where the SSG meets before you click to join. It works nicely.

Right now there are 16 group leaders, so not everyone will get a spot. But if you keep on your toes and ready to click at about lunchtime, you'll be able to maybe get a spot. Two bonus points for participating.

Trouble on the podcast line.

I have been having trouble with the Thursday podcast. It might be ready later today or evening.

So stay alert.

Only chapters 6-8.

Slight change of plan: Exam 2 will cover only chapters 6-8. Chapter 11 will not be included, as I had hoped.

Not a disaster, just a small modification.

SSG leader invitations are going out in a few minutes.

Invitations to become an SSG leader are going out in course mail in the next few minutes, in Webcourses. If you think you might be eligible, keep your eyes sharp for that message. We want to move Very quickly.

Bonus pointage opportunity

I am activating the discussion area where you may post a new question of your creation on the topics covered in Exam 2 from chapters 6-8 and chapter 11.

If your question is good enough, I might use your question on Exam 2, and then you would have one bonus point.

One bonus point might not seem like a lot right now, but by the end of the semester, each bonus point is like money in the bank. Nice.

Today's doc cam scan is UP.

The doc cam PDF from today's lecture is now UP. Look in the George McFly folder of Webcourses.

Homework 9 reading ahead is UP.

You will need to

1. view today's podcast and
2. do some reading in chapters 8 and 11

before attempting HW 9. It is available now.

Bloopers

There were some typos on exam 1, and they affected the grading on one or two questions. This occurred for both sections!

So we will be dropping everyone's scantrons back into the test scoring pipeline for a re-grade. You might see your "..Exam 1 scantron" score change by one or two points, so do not stress out about it for now. Instead, concentrate on angular momentum, the periodic table and Exam 2 next week.

Rylee office hours, amended

Rylee F. has had some schedule changes, so here is an amendment to her office hours:

Rylee
Monday	Noon - 1:30 PM	Room PS158
Wednesday	noon - 1:30 PM	Starbucks, UCF bookstore, Washington Ctr.

Pendulum 1, how to measure its period.

Here is the timing method for Pendulum 1.

Pendula and oscillation period

I will be posting several videos from the long pendulum demonstration on Thursday, Feb. 17. Here is the first one, from the beginning of the demonstration.



This video is also available inside our iTunes U area.

Actually

Actually, HW 8 will activate today at 3 PM. It is already completed and ready. Nice.

Homework 8

Homework 8 will be ready for study by lunchtime Friday. WHEEWWW! WHat a week.

Solar flare, space weather report

You can read up on recent solar flare activities, and how we measure them out here on Earth's orbit, if you click through to the Space Weather Prediction Center, operated by NOAA. It's got an interesting speedometer for the solar wind, as well as a pressure gauge.

Decodes

Students in Tuesday section 0M01, you can now view your code sequence and the decoded answer to question 2 in the CPS session. Lots of interesting sentences. I gave everyone a "correct" if they sent a code sequence. Only a few students failed to send an in a code sequence. If I were to give you a similar code question on a midterm exam, it would be easily gradable, even for partial credit.

Image: Claude Elwood Shannon

Demonstrations tomorrow: pendulum and quantum physics

Tomorrow (Thursday) we will have a demonstration and measurements of the periodic behavior of pendula. Amanda and Rylee will be taking digital video, too, for iTunes U and YouTube.

We will also map out the momentum of the pendulum and build a foundation for the quantum physics on our agenda for the last three weeks of the semester.

Codes

For students who want to look over those CPS codes again, from today's lecture, you can view a PDF of the codes. Look in the Napoleon Dynamite folder on Webcourses.

Homework 7 is ready and activated!

Our nifty momentum homework, HW 7, is now ready in Webcourses. It will be helpful to

1. view today's visual podcast of lecture 11T, and
2. read through the rest of chapter 6.

Attendance, Exam 1

We started both exams with CPS attendance. I just uploaded the exam 1 attendance data.

Exam 1 scantrons are now up for Tuesday sec. 0M01

Those of you in Tusday sec. 0M01 now have your Exam 1 scantron scores up. This completes the Exam 1 score for both sections.

Homework 6 ready for 3 PM

Your homework for the weekend, HW 6, is ready for release at 3 PM today. Due as usual at 10:30 AM, next Tuesday.

You'll want to

1. view the visual podcast of today's lecture in iTunes, and
2. read pp. 100-102 about the concept of impulse

before attempting this assignment.

Exam 1 total is now activated.

Now that the two sub-scores are activated, I have activated the Exam 1 total. So the "Exam 1" row in your My Grades page now equals

1. Tuesday sec. 0M01 "Exam 1" = 0 + ("..Exam 1 SMA")
2. Thursday sec. 0M02 "Exam 1" = ("..Exam 1 scantron") + ("..Exam 1 SMA")

Tuesday section, your Exam 1 total will probably be completed tomorrow.

Uploading zeros, then scantron data.

I will be uploading scantron data this afternoon for Thursday section 0M02.

So first, I upload a zero for everyone, all sections, in the "..Exam 1 scantron" slot, and then the actual scantron score for section 0M02 Thursday students.

You guys in section 0M01 on Tuesday will have a zero in that slot for another 24 hours or so. I hope to get your guys' scantron scores tomorrow, then upload.

To reinforce: I have to pad each line of the gradebook with zeros before uploading actual scores, in order to get the gradebook to compute totals etc. It is not a true spreadsheet, so it has to be manipulated heavily. It's a pain in the proverbial kiester, but...

Brain burner yesterday got crushed.

The SMA brain burner on yesterday's exam, about two constituent forces, got crushed. Well over 2/3 of the class got it correct.

1. big disaster for Dr. B. :(
2. Big $$ for students. :)

OK

Tuesday's SMA pointage

I will get the SMA pointage from Tuesday's exam up in Webcourses a bit later today.

No homework tonight.

No homework tonight.

Next homework will be after Thursday's lecture. You can start reading ahead into chapter 6, however. Eyeball the photos and diagrams, scan the captions -- that will get you going for Thursday's lecture.

About ..Exam 1 scantron and ..Exam 1 SMA in the grade book

When I set up the grade book before the semester starts, I always set the midterm scantron rows to be 59 points and the SMA rows to be 1 point. But I never know the exact splits until I actually write the exam.

Thursday's exam worked out to be 50 and 10.

So I just went in and modified those two rows of the grade book to read "out of 50" and "out of 10." But the other two midterms will be at 59 and 1 until the day they are taken. So Exam 2 might eventually be 46 and 14, for instance, but for now, I just leave it as 59 and 1.

Homework 5

Our homework assignments are always

1. Tuesday afternoon til Thursday morning, or
2. Thursday afternoon until Tuesday morning.

Always lecture to lecture. This includes HW 5.

However, I typed a typo on the little description blurb for HW 5, which incorrectly mentioned it being due Tuesday. However, the internal settings of the assignment were correctly configured, with HW set to expire at 10:30 AM today, as per usual.

I apologize to the dozen or so students who got caught napping by my confusing typo. It was my mistake.

But do not sweat it too much, because we traditionally have a mega-combo review HW on the lst weekend of the semester, going into finals week, which I grade out as bonus pointage. So you can get the damage repaired. Also, any bonus point will have that effect, for any of the other bonus point opportunities from time to time this semester.

Exam 1 scantrons...someday

It will take longer for us to get the scantron score back. With the university's test scoring service, you never know what you are going to get. Which means that, you guys in the Thursday section, it might be tonight that they get to our pile of scantrons, or it might be Monday!

So be patient and do not pester Dr. B about scores til next week!

SMA points are UP for Exam 1, Thursday section.

For those of you who took Exam 1 today, your SMA points are now UP in Webcourses. Look at the "..Exam 1 SMA" row of the My Grades page.

For the Tuesday section 0M01, your "..Exam 1 SMA" slot has a zero for now. But by Tuesday afternoon, it will be filled in with the points you earn on Tuesday morning.

CPS roster update

I just uploaded the new data for whether you are officially registered for CPS. It is in the "Registered for CPS?" row of the My Grades page in Webcourses. Nearly everyone is registered now.

You will need your CPS response pad for a significant part of tomorrow's midterm exam. Also, you'll need a raspberry-colored UCF scantron.

Homework 5 is GO!

Homework 5 is ready, and it is a big one.

1. Some gravitational questions, related to today's 7T lecture;
2. a mini-review of some concepts from earlier lectures.

GO GO GO!

We did not have CPS today.

I had a short CPS set of questions set up, but I decided to cover the lecture topics completely -- chapter 5, universal gravitation. So there will be no CPS data for lecture 7T. It's OK, not a disaster.

We will need CPS devices on exam day, however, so be sure to register if you haven't already done so.