Physics 609
Galileo and Einstein-- 3 Credits

Celestial Journal

For the ancients, observing the motions of the objects in the heavens was an everynight experience. This is more difficult for us, because night skies are less clear and usually well lit. To reconnect your self with at least one of the celestial objects, each of you will keep a journal with the following observations. Record the date of each observation and the time to the nearest 15 minutes.

Sun: At least twice a week throughout the semester, measure the angle of the sun in degrees above the horizon around noontime. How to measure the angle of the sun will be discussed in the first problem assignment. At the end of the semester you will make a graph of the angle of the sun on the vertical axis versus the date on the horizontal axis. Be careful to make sure your time axis is linear. The graph should contain many points (at least 25) where each point represents the angle in degrees. Each axis should contain tick marks and labeled including the units. The graph should include a legend and a title. Do not draw a line through the points. Use Microsoft excel or something similar to plot your data and submit it using the digital drop box in Blackboard by the due date given below. A sample plot will be posted later. Error bars on the data points are optional.

Change in Daylight Savings Time . Move Clock back 1 hour so it reads 1:00 AM instead of 2:00 AM. To account for the change in time due to daylight savings, you must make your measurements one hour earlier to account for the time change. Because the clocks were put back one hour and if you made your measurement at Noon before daylight savings time, then now you must make it at 11:00 AM. If you can not make your measurements at a different time, then you must designate on your graph that daylight savings time resulted in the kink in the graph since it will not be smooth.

Celestial groups: To collect the above data, you may form groups of three or fewer students from your classroom that you teach. The data you record in your journal must be taken by you or your students. You may also work with one other teacher to form a group of two teachers. Your own journal should include all the observations described above whether recorded by you or another member of your group. Your journal should describe the method you used. See Homework Assignment One for an example.

Homework Assignments

• Homework #1 due Tuesday September 25 by 11:59 pm.
• Homework #2 due Tuesday October 9 by 11:59 pm.
• Homework #3 due Tuesday October 23 by 11:59 pm.
• Homework #4 due Tuesday November 6 by 11:59 pm.
• Homework #5 due Tuesday November 20 by 11:59 pm.
• Homework #6 due Tuesday December 11 by 11:59 pm.

Exams

• Midterm Exam — Wednesday October 24 – Tuesday October 30
• Celestial Journal — Friday Novemer 30 11:59 PM
• Final Exam — Wednesday December 12 – Friday December 14