Overall Unit 1 Outline (from Syllabus)

Unit 1: Coordinates, Magnitudes, The Motion of the Sun (Daily, Annual, Millenial), Frequency, Waves, Light, Color, Temperature, Geometrical Optics, Telescopes.
- Note: The Geometrical Optics and Telescopes part of this unit will be covered in the Physics 91 labs over the course of the semester. In class we will focus on the other topics above.

Unit 1 Detailed Topic List

2020-02-10: Latitude and Longitude. Degrees, Minutes, and Seconds of Arc. First Point of Aries (in Pisces!). Handout: Latitude-Longitude Handout.
2020-02-12: Description of Solstices, Equinoxes, Ecliptic. Right Ascension, Declination. Hours, minutes, and seconds of right ascension. Handout: Right Ascension, Declination, and the Ecliptic.
2020-02-14: Explanation of The Sun's Daily Motion, Annual Motion, and Millenial Motion, The Ecliptic and the Zodiac. Handout: The Sun's Motions Explained. Animation: Pixzul's Zodiac Animation.
2020-02-17: Tycho Brahe's Observatory. Altitude. Converting Altitude to Declination. Measuring Right Ascension with a sidereal clock. Solar vs. Sidereal Day. Sidereal clock runs four minutes fast per day. Textbook Pages 114-117: Solar vs. Sidereal Day. Demonstration with Partners: 4 spins during one orbit yields 3 high noons.
2020-02-19: Scheduling of leap years. 366.24 spins of the Earth in one orbit around the Sun yields 365.24 solar days. Powers of 10 Reviewed. Scientific Notation Reviewed. Prefixes k, M, G, T. Magnitude (aka "Apparent Magnitude", in the next unit we will get to "absolute magnitude"). Handout: Introducing the Magnitude System.
2020-02-21: Completely optional, hopefully fun and relevant topic: the Richter Scale. Reference I use: Spence, Sipkin, Choy, USGS, 1989.
2020-02-21: More Magnitude Formulas, Period and Frequency, Wavelength of Waves, the Speed of Light in terms of Frequency and Wavelength. HW3 handed out 2020-02-21, due 2020-02-24: Magnitude and Frequency Homework (includes key formulas from lecture).
2020-02-24: The Electromagnetic Spectrum. Human Eye and Visible Light. Reddish, White, and Bluish Stars. Color Temperature. Cool Stars, Hot Stars. Handout: Waves, Light, Color of Stars.
2020-02-26: Fahrenheit, Celsius, and Kelvin Scales. Absolute Zero. Black-body Spectrum and Wien's Law (the Wikipedia Entry for Wien's Law is very good). Handouts: Practice With Frequency and Waves, Practice With Temperature. Start Unit 2.
2020-02-28: Unit 1 Exam. Unit 1 Exam Solution.
2020-03-02: Start Unit 2.