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 fusion, nebulae, and star cluster ages.
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 different types of nebulas, because of the different type of colors that they can make! Really cool images."
"How the mass of a star will effect its luminosity. On the suffers it seems as it just makes sense because you know, bigger is better. But honestly I never thought about how its mass affects its inner workings and the area that causes it be bright."
"The lifespan of different types of stars. its interesting to see what creates and ends stars."
"The cheerleader analogy, which is more pressure, and squeezing results in more energy and luminosity."
"That nebulae had different colors. I found it interesting because when I would think of space I would think that it was mostly just black and white."
"I honestly never even knew at first what a nebula was, only that it had something to do with space. So, to learn about the formation of clouds in our infinite universe and their properties was especially interesting."
"Stars in a star cluster are all born at the same time, so they are equally old, but they will 'age; differently, some progressing faster than others. I found this interesting because I did know that all star clusters were born in the same time."
Describe something you found confusing from the assigned textbook reading or presentation preview, and explain why this was personally confusing for you.
"I would like more clarification on how to read the H-R diagram."
"The composition of different types of nebulas. I took my time with it, and I think I got it, but I'm unsure."
"How hydrostatic equilibrium works and how is it that it connects to the layers of a star."
"The stuff about hydrogen fusion and the proton-proton chain. theres a lot of technical language that makes it a little hard to interpret."
"Why is it that the clouds around stars aren't always just exploding all the time? It seems like there are always things in space that are exploding. But why is it that all these gasses and dust just seems to sit in space between stars."
"What different types of people have to do with massive stars, medium mass stars and low mass stars [in the house party model]."
"Nothing in particular. I trust most of my confusions and questions are put at ease when we actually discuss them in class."
Rank the luminosities of these main-sequence stars (1 = brightest, 3 = dimmest). (There are no ties.)
(Only correct responses shown.)
Massive: brightest luminosity [93%]
Medium-mass (sunlike): medium luminosity [93%]
Low mass (red dwarf): dimmest luminosity [100%]
Rank the fusion rates of these main-sequence stars (1 = fastest, 3 = slowest). (There are no ties.)
(Only correct responses shown.)
Massive: fastest fusion rate [79%]
Medium-mass (sunlike): medium fusion rate [93%]
Low mass (red dwarf): slowest fusion rate [86%]
Fusion requires high temperatures in order for nuclei to move quickly enough to:
break heavy elements apart. **** [4] create convection currents. ** [2] overcome gravity. *** [3] overcome repulsion. ** [2] (Unsure/guessing/lost/help!) *** [3]
Briefly explain why "cold fusion" (producing energy from hydrogen fusion at room temperature) would be implausible.
"Proper fusion calls for hight temperatures. Without how high temperatures or pressure, the hydrogen photons will never collide or squeeze (since they 'hate' each other), therefore not produce/release any energy. You simply can't have fusion without hot temperatures or high pressures."
"Heat is needed to move atoms faster, to overcome repulsion, so they will collide. If the atoms are cold, they will not move quickly, thus will not be able to overcome repulsion."
"Atoms wouldn't move fast enough to fuse together."
"I have no idea, can you go over this in class?"
Match the three different types of nebulae with their colors.
(Only correct responses shown.)
Emission: pink [71%]
Reflection: blue [79%]
Dark: brown/black [86%]
Match the three different types of nebulae with their composition.
(Only correct responses shown.)
Emission: hydrogen [64%]
Reflection: small dust particles [71%]
Dark: large dust particles [86%]
Rank the lifetimes of these main-sequence stars (1 = shortest, 3 = longest). (There are no ties.)
(Only correct responses shown.)
Massive: shortest main-sequence lifetime [79%]
Medium-mass (sunlike): medium main-sequence lifetime [79%]
Low mass (red dwarf): longest main-sequence lifetime [64%]
If there was an open invitation to a house party (no specific time given), when would you show up?
Early, or on time. * [1] When the most people should be there. ************* [13] After most everyone has left. [0]
Ask the instructor an anonymous question, or make a comment. Selected questions/comments may be discussed in class.
"My comment is that I would like a little more clarification in the nebulae section I understood most of it but was a bit confused in that section."
"Did you party much in college?" (I don't specifically remember. So, probably, yes.)
"Have you dealt with 'low-mass stars' at your house? (Expanding further on the house party question, I can't drive by myself, but I feel like I'm usually dangling between a massive and medium-mass star type of person. BUT I never want to be a low-mass, red dwarf party-goer.)
"Dr. Len, if we invite you to a function will you take shots of Hennessy with us?" (Hennessy? Why not Remy Martin?)
"Let's go over everything. I'm behind."
No comments:
Post a Comment