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.
"If light would not interact with matter I wouldn't be able to see what I am typing. I found this interesting because I would also not exist because of it."
"Seeing protons and electrons used outside of a science classroom is fun and interesting to see."
"Something I found interesting in this week's reading was that the top surface of the sun is called photosphere. I didn't know that the surface of the sun even had a name."
"I found the chromosphere to be really interesting. the fact that certain photons can cause a lavender color is pretty cool."
"I found discharge tubes interesting, neon lights are cool. It reminded me of an episode of How It's Made, or something similar that I watched. I didn't know they used different gases for different colors."
"It was interesting to read on the 'discharge tube' how the electricity turns on and changes the color of the gas."
"I found all the neon signs interesting just due to them all being cool looking and me wanting one. Plus we talked about them all the time my junior year of high school in chemistry."
"Something from the text that was really interesting for me that I didn't already know was that the sun dosen't have a real surface and it's not solid but is in a gaseous form all the way down to the core."
"Something I found interesting was that that yellow hot is hotter than red hot. I usually would think that red hot is hotter."
"I think it's crazy that we are even able to see the corona and chromosphere during a total solar eclipse, I myself have seen this once and it was a pretty cool view."
"I found interesting is the image of the total eclipse and how you can see the wing-like feature in the sun's corona."
"What was interesting was learning about sunspots because I've only ever heard the word before and didn't really understand what it was. I knew they were spots on the sun but I didn't know that they usually came in pairs or that they actually have an extremely faint glow to them."
"After reading the text, I thought it was interesting how when I put my hand near a candle flame that I'm feeling infrared photons or packets of energy. It's interesting to me because something as simple as putting my hand near a candle has meaning behind it. I am experiencing the transport of energy by radiation."
"Quantum mechanics. I always found them interesting and want to learn more about them. Its cool to learn about how the tiniest subatomic particles changing orbit and direction are actually responsible for running the universe."
Describe something you found confusing from the assigned textbook reading or presentation preview, and explain why this was personally confusing for you.
"I want to learn more on the photons and their energy."
"I don't really understand the electrons moving."
"I'm not completely clear on what the proton and electron stuff is. Some I understand but most of it I don’t because chemistry just doesn’t click with me."
"I didn't know that there was so much chemistry involved with astronomy. It's surprising."
"Not so much confusing, but perhaps not the most interesting, was atoms, protons, and electrons. I personally found this not as interesting just because throughout life of taking science classes, I have already learned a lot about it, so it was sort of like review. Usually atoms are not the most interesting thing to learn about in science."
"The sunspots and granules had a lot of information and was described well, however I'm still a little confused about how they work. I'm not sure why it's confusing to me, but I read it over a bunch of times and I couldn't figure it out. The lava lamps and miso soup analogies helped me understand a little more, but I was wondering what makes that happen."
"I found granulation to be confusing. "
"Something I found confusing was the Doppler effect. I have never heard of this, but in the textbook it mentioned how this us used to measure velocities."
"Not really confused this week."
An electron in an atom must emit a photon when it jumps from a __________ energy orbital to a __________ energy orbital.
lower; higher. **** [4] higher; lower. ***************** [17] (Both of the above choices.) ** [2] (Unsure/guessing/lost/help!) ***** [5]
An electron in an atom must absorb a photon when it jumps from a __________ energy orbital to a __________ energy orbital.
lower; higher. ****************** [18] higher; lower. **** [4] (Both of the above choices.) * [1] (Unsure/guessing/lost/help!) ***** [5]
The exterior of the sun, from inner to outermost layers, are the:
(Only correct responses shown.)
inner: photosphere [71%]
middle: chromosphere [75%]
outer: corona [71%]
State your preference regarding miso soup.
Strongly dislike. [0] Dislike. ** [2] Neutral. ******** [8] Like ***** [5] Strongly like. ******** [8] (I don't know what miso soup is.) ***** [5]
Ask the instructor an anonymous question, or make a comment. Selected questions/comments may be discussed in class.
"Is every star structured the same as our sun?" (No, but we'll start with understanding how the sun works, and then extend this knowledge to understand how other stars work similarly or differently compared to the sun.)
"This chapter was confusing! Please go over a lot of the main points!"
"Can and will the sun ever go out?" (Yes. The sun's about five billion years old, and has about five billion more years to go.)
"Are all of the pictures from the presentation from San Luis Obispo? I only recognized the Madonna inn sign because it's right off the highway. (From all around San Luis Obispo county; some signs are no longer up today.)
"How many photons are there?" (As many photons as there are electrons that are about to jump down to lower energy states.)
"If layers like the chromosphere have such low density, how do they remain around a star? Is it just the pull of its gravity keeping it there? Do less massive stars have smaller chromospheres?" (Yes, and probably yes, although chromospheres around stars (specifically superflare activity) can only be observed indirectly.)
"I can't get the concept of the photosphere! How can light be emitted but not escape until it gets up to the photosphere?" (The interior of the sun is pretty much a mosh pit, so if you're a photon, there isn't a lot of space between stuff to get a clear path out, and you can just as easily get deflected randomly back down compared to being deflected outwards towards the surface.)
"Why does the moon's gravity cause tides on Earth but the sun's gravity doesn't?" (The sun does create tides, it contributes about half as much tides as the moon.)
"What do redshifts and blueshifts actually look like if they don't actually make their stars appear red or blue?" (It's a very subtle effect that makes all the wavelengths of light from a star slightly "stretch out" or "scrunch together" when you compare them to light from a non-moving star.)
"I read in the book that sunspots can somehow affect Earth's climate. I don't believe I heard anything else about this in the book. Do we have an explanation?" (Consensus is that there is a weak correlation between sunspot activity and Earth's climate in the past, but this effect is very small compared to other stronger factors such as man-made contributions to the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.)
"Does the sun have gases that are electrically charged like in discharge (neon) tubes?" (Well, electrically zapping electrons is one way to give them enough energy to jump up to higher energy levels (so they can jump back down to emit photons), but the sun's temperatures are high enough to give thermal energy to the electrons to do this as well.)
Something I found a bit confusing came from the textbook: it states that the sun will eventually, like other stars lose mass rapidly. What does this mean? Does this mean it will eventually lose all of its mass?" (Right now the sun is losing a very tiny fraction of mass as it converts it into energy (this is Albert Einstein's E = mc2 mass-energy equation) via fusion, but the vast amount of mass is still there. However at the end of its lifetime, the sun will expand and shed much of its outer layers, but the core will remain intact, and the portion that remains will eventually become a white dwarf after the sun finishes "dying.")
"How strongly do astronomers need to know about science to do their job?" (About as much training as any person needs to know to do their jobs properly. Disclaimer: I'm not an astronomer; my training is in condensed matter physics and astronomy education research.)
"Pictures help me learn something best. (Me too.)
"Why is there miso soup question?" (It's important!)
No comments:
Post a Comment