Monday, January 14, 2008

• Select a clicker and follow the instructions to register it.  You will use this same clicker each class, so remember its ID on top (e.g. F9).
• If you are not yet enrolled in this Physics 101 course and its corresponding lab, please see Sallie Anderson in Phillips 278.
• Labs start tomorrow.  The lab schedule is posted outside the lab room (Phillips 275), in the display case near the north entrance of Phillips hall, in the front of your lab manual, and on the physics lab website.

Assignments:

• Answer the recommended conceptual exercises for Chapter 2 (listed at the bottom of the daily schedule), and check your understanding by looking at the answers in the back of the textbook.
• Memorize the SI prefixes and names for powers of ten from at least trillion to trillionth (10¹² to 10^-12).
  

• Chapter 1 review
  
• Ponderable:  What constitutes a good theory?
• Ponderable:  Why is the period of revolution for Earth around the Sun not one day?
• Chapter 2 - Atoms
• Video:  Powers of Ten
• Discuss:  In Fig. 2.12, the length scales range from 10^25 m down to 10^-25 m, with human size (~1 m) right in the middle.  Is this just chance, or is there a reasonable explanation for this occurrence?
• Question:  What is the age of a typical student in seconds?
  
• Discuss:  Suppose someone offers you a billion one-dollar bills if you are willing to first count them.  Should you accept this offer?
• Estimate the number of molecules in a drop of water.
• If the nucleus of a hydrogen atom were the size of a baseball, how far away would the electron typically be?
• Why is ice less dense than water?  (Hint: see figures 2.2 and 2.7 in the textbook.)