Quiz 2

... is a warm-up for exam 2. You'll be quizzed over these three parts of our recent class content. This corresponds approximately to the class notes from Feb 3 to March 7, excluding the material from Collapse. Suggestions: Study with someone else, and make and study practice questions.

Making comparisons

  • Powers of 10
    • Going back and forth between exponential representation and a written out number. E.g. $10^3=1,000$; $10^{-1}=\frac1{10}=0.1$;
    • multiplying and dividing powers of ten.
    • grouping to resolve multiplication / division of numbers written with powers of 10. E.g. $$\frac{4\times10^3}{2\times10^4}=\frac42\times\frac{10^3}{10^4}= 2\times 10^{3-4}=2\times 10^{-1}=2\times 0.1=0.2$$.
    • Metric prefixes; Comparing numbers with different metric prefixes
    • Unit conversions
    • Get a feel for the human-scale metric measurements. What are some objects that are 1/10 meter, 1 m, 10 m, 100 m; 1/10 kg, 1 kg, 10 kg, 100 kg; Some things or locations with a temperature of -10 C, 0 C, 20 C, 40 C, 100 C...

    Labs

    • Lab 4 - Thermometers
    • Lab 5 - Hot and Cold : mixing different quantities of hot and cold water together. Know how to use that "weighted average" for mixing hot and cold water. $$T_f=\frac{m_H}{m_T}T_H + \frac{m_C}{m_T}T_C.$$

    Atoms / Atmosphere

    • The connection between temperature and molecular speeds.
    • Evidence for hotter $\leftrightarrow$ faster molecular motion.
    • The main gases in Earth's atmosphere.
    • Which gases are greenhouse gases / which are not / why? (molecules with floppy arms are the ones most likely to absorb IR)
    • Why do some gases stay in the atmosphere a long time and others condense out more rapidly?
    • History of our knowledge of the greenhouse effect
    • How do we know $CO_2$ levels recently (Mauna Loa measurements) and longer ago (what are "ice cores"? How do we "read" them? what can they tell us?) Also: roughly what was the pre-industrial $CO_2$ concentration in ppm and currently?