20111202

Astronomy current events question: matter-antimatter decay imbalance

Astronomy 210L, fall semester 2011
Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, CA

Students are assigned to read online articles on current astronomy events, and take a short current events quiz during the first 10 minutes of lab. (This motivates students to show up promptly to lab, as the time cut-off for the quiz is strictly enforced!)
Jason Palmer, "LHC Reveals Hints of 'New Physics' in Particle Decays," November 15, 2011
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15734668
Preliminary observations of __________ at the Large Hadron Collider may explain why the universe is predominately matter.
(A) different particle and antiparticle decay rates.
(B) neutrinos traveling faster than the speed of light.
(C) dark matter and dark energy production.
(D) miniature short-lived black holes.
(E) lack of time-reversed big banglets.

Correct answer: (A)

Student responses
Sections 70178, 70186, 70200
(A) : 30 students
(B) : 4 students
(C) : 10 students
(D) : 2 students
(E) : 0 students

1 comment:

Patrick M. Len said...

Astronomy 210L, spring semester 2012
Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, CA

(Introduction sample current events quiz handed out on the first day of instruction, so students will not have had studied for this.)

Student responses
Sections 30678, 30679, 30680
(A) : 27 students
(B) : 10 students
(C) : 23 students
(D) : 7 students
(E) : 0 students