HW 11 is ready.

Your homework assignment #11 is ready.

I will be working like a subhuman maniac for the next 36 hours to get your Exam 2 prepared, so post your questions in Discussions (unless you have a personal question, like grades). The LAs Marina and Alexa will be watching Discussions like the proverbial hawk, and if I am not able to chip in some advise in your Discussion thread, they will be able to do so.

ALSO: Be careful not to post duplicate threads -- read carefully to see if your question has already been asked and answered.

HW 10 is UP.

Your tenth homework assignment is UP. It will be due, as usual, at the beginning of lecture on Monday.

You'll want to do some reading in Ch. 4 for this assignment. Click on the assignment, and you'll see where to read.

In science there is only physics;
all the rest is stamp collecting.
- William Thomson, Lord Kelvin

Typos

I had some typos in both iClicker solutions PDFs from Exam 1. They are now fixed, corrected version is now in place on the Exam blurbs page.

Thermal concepts

There is a new mini-module on thermal concepts that will open up tomorrow after morning lecture. It has a few details and links that will help you learn some of the concepts.

Office hours for blooper checks etc.

I will be having office hours today, 9:00 - 10:30 AM, as scheduled. If you need to do a blooper check on your scantron, or if you have any other thing to discuss, drop by and we can try to get stuff squared away.

ALSO: L.A. Marina will have office hours tomorrow afternoon, 12:30 - 1:30 PM.

Additional office hours

Our LA Marina has set up office hours on Wednesdays, 12:30 - 1:30 PM, Wednesdays, in Room PS158 of the Physical Sciences Building. She will start this week.

My office hours continue, 9:00 - 10:30 AM, Tuesdays, PS158.

I hope LA Alexa will also get some office hours scheduled. Then we will have multiple office hour slots, increasing attendance.

Fingerprints: Hubble Catches a Spiral in the Air Pump | NASA

Hubble Catches a Spiral in the Air Pump | NASA
If you read this story carefully, you will find a mention of how astronomers use "emission lines" -- like we saw on the first day of class -- to identify a specific kind of galaxy.

Exam 1 scores are UP.

You can now view your Exam 1 scores in the Grades page of Canvas. The Exam 1 score is the sum of

1. Exam 1 scantron (out of 34) +
2. Exam 1 clicker (out of 6).

Some of you might not have scantron scores if you blooped up the PID or test form dots. You might not have clicker points if it is not registered or you did not click in any answers. I hope to get those bloopers squared away in the next week or so.

A few of you nabbed the bonus points on the fourth iClicker2 question. Of those few, one student actually got 41/40 on Exam 1. WOW.

Here is a histogram of the scores. Avg. = 30.6/40.

Drama majors!

The Physics Dept. is having a "career day" for high schoolers in a few weeks, Oct. 12. One part of the program includes faculty dressed up like famous scientists from the past -- Sir Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday etc.

But physics faculty are major eggheads, up in the ozone layer most of the time. They need help with costume, makeup etc.

IF YOU are a drama major or have costuming experience and would like to assist the faculty, please send me a message in Canvas, or check in with me after lecture for a minute. After Exam 1 we can coordinate and work on some kind of plan.

BTW: Check out that equation in red!

YouTube demonstrations

Here is a YouTube from a few years ago of the spectrum of hydrogen.

There are other YouTubes at the PSC1121 channel in YoutubE.

Excitement and... a wipeout!

Yesterday afternoon was so exciting →→ Alexa singlehandedly CRUSHING the metal paint can.

Excellent.

But in the excitement, one of the humanoid beings up front forget to SAVE the podcast file, so there is no podcast of it.

HOWEVER, the same subhumanoid being who wiped out a lovely afternoon podcast also preserved his morning lecture podcast in the usual manner.

SO... afternoon section can view the morning podcast, which is slightly different, and we did cover a bit more material. It should help with the homework, too. I have slotted it into the 1:30 PM Lecture side of our iTunes U area; you have the "emergency version".

GO! GO! GO!