20150929

Online reading assignment: quantum leaps, sun's outer layers (NC campus)

Astronomy 210, fall semester 2015
Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, CA

Students have a weekly online reading assignment (hosted by SurveyMonkey.com), where they answer questions based on reading their textbook, material covered in previous lectures, opinion questions, and/or asking (anonymous) questions or making (anonymous) comments. Full credit is given for completing the online reading assignment before next week's lecture, regardless if whether their answers are correct/incorrect. Selected results/questions/comments are addressed by the instructor at the start of the following lecture.

The following questions were asked on reading textbook chapters and previewing presentations on quantum leaps, and the sun's outer layers.


Selected/edited responses are given below.

Describe something you found interesting from the assigned textbook reading or presentation preview, and explain why this was personally interesting for you.
"The glowing disk of the sun at sunset is 109 times the diameter of Earth's. It is absolutely amazing to me that there can be things so much bigger than Earth."

"Basically, reading about the sun was pretty interesting. I liked reading about sunspots--had no idea that even existed."

"I it interesting that you referred to miso soup as 'sun-surface soup.'"

"I thought it was mind-boggling to look at an image of the photosphere and the process of granulation and try to imagine that each granule represented was about the size of Texas."

"I've never known much about the sun and now I do and it makes me happy."

"I found it interesting how the ancient Egyptians represented the chromosphere with the sun having wings and cobras spitting fire. Looking at the slide from the presentation I can see how they would see that."

"I think it's crazy how exact electrons have to be when absorbing or releasing photons in order to move from one energy level to the next."

Describe something you found confusing from the assigned textbook reading or presentation preview, and explain why this was personally confusing for you.
"I've never been very good with chemistry so I still get a little confused whenever it comes to that."

"I got a little bit lost on the section discussing atoms. I think it was just a lot of terminology and I was failing to understand the process behind each term i.e. permitted orbits, quantum jumps, etc."

"I'm still a bit lost on sunspots and how they are compared to magnets and TVs."

"It's hard for me to contemplate the heat of the suns surface because of how hot it supposedly is."

"What I found confusing is how sunspots on the sun's surface are cool, when the sun is so hot. I don't understand how it's caused by the strong magnetic fields."

An electron in an atom must emit a photon when it jumps from a __________ energy orbital to a __________ energy orbital.
lower; higher.  ****** [6]
higher; lower.  ********* [9]
(Both of the above choices.)  *** [3]
(Unsure/guessing/lost/help!)  [0]

An electron in an atom must absorb a photon when it jumps from a __________ energy orbital to a __________ energy orbital.
lower; higher.  ************ [12]
higher; lower.  ***** [5]
(Both of the above choices.)  * [1]
(Unsure/guessing/lost/help!)  [0]

The exterior of the sun, from inner to outermost layers, are the:
(Only correct responses shown.)
inner: photosphere [67%]
middle: chromosphere [72%]
outer: corona [67%]

State your preference regarding miso soup.
Strongly dislike.  [0]
Dislike.  ** [2]
Neutral.  ** [2]
Like  **** [4]
Strongly like.  ******* [7]
(I don't know what miso soup is.)  *** [3]

Ask the instructor an anonymous question, or make a comment. Selected questions/comments may be discussed in class.
"Did you see the lunar eclipse?" (No, it was cloudy. #fml)

"Many things that we have discussed in class about the other planets around us is from assumptions. What if most of it is wrong?" (Then science is progressing. #themoreyouknow)

"What is miso soup?" (For those of you who don't even know what that is, go and try miso soup for homework.)

"Why the question about miso soup?" (Because, it's delicious. Also, physics.)

"I can read the textbook but I find that when you give a brief overview I suddenly get that 'ah ha' moment." (I live for moments like that.)

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