| Assignment #2 Questions |
Q1. When is the assignment due?
A1. The assignment is due Friday March 20th before 4:00PM. Please read the instructions on the cover sheet and make sure you put the assignment in the correct drop boxes in MP ANYTIME before 4pm.
Q2. Can I work by myself?
A2. Yes.
Q3. Do I have to find my own group?
A3. Yes. We leave it to the students to organize themselves in a group.
Q4. Can I work with people from other tutorial?
A4. Yes, you can. Just remember that you should hand in the assignment according to first person on the cover sheet. Also, the assignment will be handed back to that person as well.
Q5. What kind of documentation format should I use?
A5. Any reasonable format is fine. You can find some examples here (note this is a science class)
Q6. What sources would be useful in answering the assignment questions?
A6. The textbook contains some answers or at least hints to the correct answers for some of the assignment problems. However, for other problems, you will need to use other sources such as books, scientific journals, and the web. Online sources can be very helpful, but you have to be careful to use only reputable and reliable scientific sources. For instance, an online encyclopedia and a NASA web site are fine, but a report on CNN or a newspaper are not.
If you are using sources other than your textbook, you have to reference them properly. If your extra source is a book, then write the name of the book, the author and publisher, and the chapter or page. If you are using a journal, you have to provide the name of the journal, the volume and page, as well as the title of the article that you have used. Finally, if you are using the web, you have to provide the web address (URL) of the website along with the title of the article and its author. Footnotes are acceptable for citations.
NOTE: Remember that the idea of using online sources is NOT to COPY-PASTE part of the article, but to use the information that you get from that article in your answers. A short quote is allowed, but you have to put it in quotation marks to make it clear that it does not consist of your own words.You should not have to look into actual academic papers to do your assignment.
Q7. How many people can work together as a group?
A7. For Assignment #2, groups can vary in size from 1 to 5 people.
Q8. How long do my answers have to be?
A8. Answers should be long enough to fully explain the subject, but otherwise should be as concise as possible. Point form is encouraged when possible. Tables are a great way of displaying facts (though be careful to cite ALL references).
Q9. What happens if I have a class at the same time that I am supposed to hand in the assignment?
A9. Please hand in the assignment to the drop boxes ANYTIME before it is due (ie hand in before your class)!
Q10. For question 2.a), what do you mean by what massive stars look like?
A10. The question is asking for what kind of object you expect a massive star to become as it follows its evolutionary track. HINT:Some of them are mentioned in this assignment. It is not asking for the characteristics of the massive stars.
Q11. I have no idea what 2.d) is asking.
A11. We are looking for an explanation for the spread in colour in the H-R diagram. Since we know that the stars in the cluster are born at roughly the same time, the stars with same mass should occupy roughly the same spot in the H-R diagram. If that's the case, the main sequence should be narrow. But we see a spread in colour. We give a big hint about the multiplicity of two in brightness will correspond to about 0.75 of difference in colour. Another hint:It should be obvious from number 1 again.