- Here is the essay question for Exam 3
- Review Session: Sunday, December 14, 8PM, Room 5 Physics
- Exam 3 review sheet
conditions
- If you are missing a homework grade, doing this optional assignment could give you up to 20 points. Each of the regular homeworks are worth 40 points, so this gave you a chance to recover up to half of your missing homework value.
- If you are not missing a homework grade, you could still have done this optional assignment for extra credit. You may earn up to 10 points by doing so. Extra credit was limited to either 10 points or the total difference between your three homework grades and 120 (that is, if you got grades of 35, 40, and 40 on the regular homeworks, you could get at most 5 extra credit points).
Do either of these (not both!):
- Bennett et al., Chapter 9, Surprising Discoveries, numbers 1-8 (on page 250). OR
- Bennet et al., Chapter 24, Fantasy or Science Fiction, numbers 1-8 (on page 747).
- At a Lunar Eclipse, by Thomas Hardy (poem)
- Eclipse, a song by Jack Hardy
Homework 3 will help settle this - it is a bit different than the previous homeworks, so click on the link there, print it out, and then read this item again. You were to fill it out and bring it in to recitation on 10/31 (or 11/3). In recitation sections on October 31 and November 3 you participated in this debate. For background reading, check out the following links:
- Quicktime movie of a debate on the NBC Today Show between two 'professionals' (3.2Mb, through WebCT - weird colors but...)
- The 'official statement' of the International Astronomical Union. (does saying it is so mean that it really is so?)
- FAQ-Is Pluto a Planet from another 'official' group.
- Is Pluto one of the Family? from Astronomy Now.
- Much Ado about Pluto - from NASA.
- A Major Fracas about a Small, but Not Quite Minor, Planet: the New York Times weighs in.
- A Case Study in Solar System Classification More details, with comments.
- What is a Planet? Debate Forces a New Definition: from Space.com.
- Numerous quotes and links to popular and newspaper articles on the Pluto Debate
Nah...
| If you are taking only Astro 120 and not Astro 150 (now or in the future), then buy just The Solar System, which is Volume 1 of The Cosmic Perspective. |
 click for a bigger version |
| If you are taking Astro 150 this term or might take it later, then you might want to buy the complete The Cosmic Perspective, as the complete version includes the contents of Volume 2 - the required text for Astro 150 this term. |
 click for a bigger version |
