Final exam - study guide

When?

    Tuesday, April 22, 8:30 am${}^*$

(${}^*$ The Registrar's schedule says our exam period will begin at 8:00 am. But we won't need the whole time, so we'll start at 8:30 instead.)

We'll start with a time of looking at each other's mini-poster projects in groups of 3. Bring your iPad or laptop to class! Part of the final exam will involve writing a short summary of someone else's project and making a connection with climate change-related ideas that we've discussed. (Either the physics of climate change or, in relation to Diamond's book, explaining some factor that negatively impacted a civilization.)

What kind of questions?

The style of the questions will be like the previous exam: Some multiple choice. Some multiple answer--with more than one right answer. Some short answer. A few calculations to do.

Can I use a calculator?

Yes

Can I use the calculator on my phone?

No networked devices may be consulted during the exam. But you may use the Desmos "test-mode" sci. calculator (which we did on exam 2) which shuts you out of other apps.

What will be on the exam?

The final exam will cover the whole semester. But with an emphasis on the topics below, since the second exam. Here are the exam guides for exam 1 and exam 2.

You're responsible for readings, class notes and demonstrations. Look over our off-campus raginmar.org class notes.

Below is my attempt to summarize the material

Calculations

  • Comparisons
  • Unit conversions

    Climate sensitivity

    How the climate responds to radiative forcing

    • Kalmus reading
    • Climate tipping points
    • Climate feedback cycles
      • Know some examples of feedback cycles
      • The difference between positive (or destabilizing) and negative (or stabilizing) feedback
      • Feedback cycles that humans are involved including new invention adoption, diseases, and "learning curves" associated with price drops for manufactured goods.

    Agriculture

    • Where the energy for plant growth comes from: the sun.
    • Why agriculture (or at least agriculture in rich countries like the U.S.) requires a lot of energy (in the form of fossil fuels)
    • Why different foods (plants, eggs, chickens, cows) require more or less energy to grow and bring to market.
    • Livestock and the Feed Conversion Ratio.
    • The Green Revolution and fossil fuel inputs.
    • Elements of the Green Revolution package
    • Soil fertility
      • Examples from Collapse (Easter Island, Greenland, Papua New Guinea, Tikopia) where it played a role.
      • Some sources of soil fertility: Volcanic dust, manures, fertilizers (natural and industrial)

    Energy

    • Forms of energy
      • Gravitational energy, $GravE=mgh$.
      • Heat, $Q=mc$\Delta T$
      • Kinetic energy, $KE=\frac12 mv^2$.
      • Thermal energy: $\frac32 k_BT=\frac 12m\langle v^2\rangle$.
      • Chemical energy
      • Nuclear energy
      • Elastic energy
      • Light / Electromagnetic energy: energy from the Sun warming Earth
      • Electric energy
    • Units of energy, Joules, calories, Calories = kilo calories.
    • Power = Energy / time. Watt = 1 Joule / second.
    • Exercise: modest exertion ~100 Watts ~ 180 kCal for half hour
    • Generating electricity: The Faraday effect (moving magnets past coils of wire--often in conjunction with a spinning *turbine*) and the PhotoVoltaic effect (PV - Solar panels convert light energy into DC electricity); Risks of different forms of energy

    Labs

    • Vaporization. Thermal energy is also required to change phase (for example, to go from liquid water to steam), even if when the temperature isn't changing (e.g. boiling, melting...)
    • Dynamic equilibrium: Just as many molecules leaving (evaporating) from the liquid phase as are returning (condensing) from the gas phase;
    • Evaporative cooling (losing fastest molecule $\to$ average speed of those remaining goes down $\to$ cooling)
    • Connection with relative humidity: less cooling if too many molecules are always coming back!
    • Evaporative cooling / "sweating!"
    • Galileo lab - speed and acceleration
      • Speed as the slope on a distance vs. time graph
      • Acceleration as the slope on a speed vs. time graph
      • Constant acceleration (independent of mass) for falling objects when air resistance can be neglected. (Different on other planets / moons)
      • Non-zero acceleration means changing speed (speeding up or slowing down). Zero acceleration (no acceleration) means that the speed is not changing.
    • Student power lab - gravitational energy and power

    Solutions to climate change?

    • Project Drawdown solutions:
      • What are sources? sinks?
      • Know a few examples of solution which reduce sources or enhance sinks.

    Your In the News presentations.

    Skim the presentations again. I'll ask you to give some examples of problems or solutions from the among the presentations we heard.

    Readings from Collapse

    • Diamond's 5 factors, and which of these seemed to be a bit more important than the the others (or, also involved in each situation). Be able to come up with examples of each of the 5 from among the chapters you read (and each other's chapter briefs).
    • Montana
    • Easter Island
    • Tikopia
    • New Guinea highlands

    Other readings

    Short essay questions

    ...that will be on the final.

    • Choose one of Diamond's 5 factors. Give examples from 2 of the chapters [listed above, your choice] of how this factor played a part in the collapse of civilizations profiled. (Or in the case of Tikopia, or New Guinea, you might write about how your factor contributed to the ongoing viability of these.)

      Write about 1.5-2.5 paragraphs.

      I encourage you to write out your answer ahead of time, in preparation for the exam. But you'll write during the exam without notes. So memorize your main points.

    • In a few sentences, reflect on one of your strongly held personal values and what connection it might have with climate change.

      This is a rehash of our last homework. Kathryn Hayhoe suggests that the most useful way to talk with others about climate change is to connect it to your personal values. What is one value that you hold dear, that you feel is pretty important? (This reminds me of Diamond's chapter on Montana, where he tried to describe the values of 4 different Montanans he knew...) Give an example of that value. How is that value connected with a changing climate? (Or how does that value intersect with your concerns about climate change?)

    Presentation groups

    • Hailey, Malia, Kami
    • Christina, Mia, Brandon
    • Emma, AJ, Hayden
    • Liz, Alexandra, Lily
    • Guliana, Ariadna, Eva
    • Sami, Maddie, Kerly
    • Detroit, Luisa, Selene