Astro 102

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Astronomy 102, Fall, 2006

Handouts

Lecture Slides

They are available in both OpenDocument Presentation format (the format used by OpenOffice.org) and in standard PDF format. The "handouts" files are PDF files with four slides per page.

Some of the files are quite big.



Review Problems

I will occasionally post review problems and solutions. These are optional problems that are presented for your own study purposes. They may help you understand the material. Some of them will be straightforward, and some will be quite challenging – more challenging than anything I would ask on a test. Some of you may find them to be good "exercise" in thinking about astronomy, and in preparing for tests. These are all in PDF format.

Final Review (2006/12/08) – Equation Sheet – Solutions
A sample final exam. This has questions from throughout the course. it is here to help you study for the final. Of course, all of the previous tests, sample tests, and review problem sets are also useful in studying for the final!

Exam 4 Review (2006/11/21) – Equation Sheet – Solutions
A sample exam that covers the expansion of the Universe material that wll be on Exam 4.

Problem Set 5 (2006/11/21) – Solutions
A set of problems that deal with expansion of the Universe issues.

Exam 3 Review (2006/10/24) – Solutions
A sample exam that covers the same general sorts of topics as will be on Exam 3. As with earlier sample exams, don't expect each problem here to have a "sibling" problem on the exam.

Problem Set 4 (2006/10/24) – Solutions
Problems that deal mostly with distance measurements, the sorts of things that will be on Exam 3.

Exam 2 Review (2006/10/02) – Solutions
A sample exam that should be "like" Exam 2. It has four problems, as will Exam 2, but don't expect each problem on this review exam to correspond to a single problem on Exam 2. It does cover the same general material as Exam 2. For further practice, look at Problem Set 2 and Problem Set 3 below.

Problem Set 3 (2006/10/02) – Solutions
A mix of problems, some fairly easy, some pretty hard, to help give you more practice dealing with questions on blackbody radiation, light, luminsity/distance/brightness, and stellar evolution.

Problem Set 2 (2006/09/23) – Solutions – solutions updated 10/03
A set of review problems that touches on the Doppler shift and E=mc2, and luminosity, distances, and brightnesses of blackbodies like stars. Note: some of these problems are more mathematically involved than anything I would ask on a test! However, I might ask questions that involve some of the math, so they're good practice. What's more important is understanding (to the level that you could reproduce) the reasoning behind the problem, and understanding why each equation was used where it was.

Exam 1 Review (2006/09/08) – Solutions
A sample exam that should be of similar length and covering similar topics as Exam 1. Note: do not expect exam 1 to have the same problems, or even problems that are "basically the same but with different numbers". The information behind the questions will be the same, but not the questions.

Problem Set 1 (2006/09/04) – Solutions
Rate problems, unit conversions, and radioactive decay.



Math Review

As astronomy is a physical science, and as math is the language of science, there will be some math in this course. All of it is math that you have seen before, although you may not be terribly familiar in thinking in mathematical terms as we will do in this course. This is a few-page reivew of some of the primary mathematical concepts that you are less likely to be comfortable with, but which will be important in this course.


Last modified: 2006-12-08, by Robert Knop

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