Wednesday Feb. 6, 2008
Assignment #1 1S1P reports were collected
at the start of class. You can turn in up to two reports next
Wednesday (Feb. 13).
Be sure to return your Experiment #1 materials this week, your report
is due next Monday. The first Optional
Assignment is also due next Monday.
A few
pieces of historical information (highlighted below) on pps. 31-32 in
the photocopied Classnotes were mentioned at the start of class.
Click here
to see a description of an experiment that Galileo conducted
to show that air had weight.
The stratosphere was discovered in the earlier 1900s by Leon Philippe
Teisserence de Bort.
Capt. Hawthorne C. Grey was mentioned at the beginning of a 10 minute
video shown in class (from a PBS program called "The
Adventurers"). Note especially the amount of clothing worn by
Grey in an early flight to stay warm at the top of the troposphere.
Auguste Piccard and Paul Kipfer's trip into the stratosphere was the
main subject of the video segment shown in class. They nearly ran
out of oxygen too before descending in their balloon. Note the
involvement of the Soviets and Americans in later attempts at high
altitude balloon records. Auguste Piccard would even wife to the
stratosphere on one of his flights. World War II put an end to
this Age of Stratospheric Exploration.
The
remainder of the class was devoted to the Practice Quiz.