Bring a calculator and writing instruments. (I'll plan to bring a couple of extra calculators). I will provide for you any formulas needed. You may refer to the periodic table on the wall.

Exam 2

Suggestions: Study with someone else. Make and study practice questions: End of chapter exercises in Hobson, and some study questions in my notes are a start.

Format of the test

  • multiple choice, multiple answer (more than one true answer), true/false, short answers
  • A small number of open ended questions for you to write about.
  • Even with multiple choice questions, it's *still* a fine idea to jot a note about how you're solving a problem. Sometimes that can lead to partial credit.
  • Formulas: I'll give you any needed--you don't need to memorize formulas.

Material covered

Readings in Collapse and responses

  • Preview (video of Jarod Diamond) - Diamond's five factors that play a role in how societies have responded to environmental challenges.
  • Montana
  • Easter Island
  • Top down / Bottom up, New Guinea, Tikopia

Other readings

  • Where do trees get their mass from?
  • Kalmus on Climate departure
  • The Climate of Man

Making comparisons

  • Basic powers of 10 (multiplying and dividing).
  • Metric prefixes
  • Unit conversions:
    • Memorize the metric prefixes and their meanings. For example, you should know that 1 gigaton is 1,000 megatons=1,000,000 kilotons. 1 kilogram is 1,000 grams, and be able to use that to convert grams $\to$ kg or kg $\to$ grams.
    • But I'll give you any conversion factors needed outside of the metric units. E.g. the number of cups in a gallon, or the number of centimeters in one inch. Or the number of kilometers in a mile.

Labs

  • Lab 4 - Thermometers
  • Lab 5 - Hot and Cold (mixing different quantities of hot and cold water together).
  • Lab 6 - Heat pulses, heat capacity, thermal energy: $Q = mc\Delta T$.
  • Lab 7 - Vaporization
  • Lab 8 - Evaporation
  • "Lab" JLF - "the size of an atom"

Atoms / Atmosphere

  • 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).
  • Global warming potentials, GWPs, depend on how long a gas is in the atmosphere and how much IR absorption.
  • 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" and what do they tell us?) Also: roughly what was the pre-industrial $CO_2$ concentration in ppm and currently?
  • What is the IPCC? Who is a part of it? Who is their "boss"? What do they do? The consensus process.

Chemicals, elements, compounds

  • Substance are decomposed, until we get to things which cannot be further decomposed: elements.
  • "Naked eye" evidence for atoms: Brownian motion; soap drops spreading out (for size of atoms); Connecting a battery to electrodes in water to separate $H_2O$ molecules into hydrogen and oxygen; food coloring in hot water / cold water showing the connection between temperature and speed,
  • Interpreting chemical formulas
  • Balancing chemical equations: equal numbers of each kind of atom on the right and left of a chemical reaction equation.
  • Chemical energy as re-arrangement and different bond strengths.
  • Moles: 1 mole of hydrogen atoms weighs about 1 gram.
  • weight ratios in chemical reactions.

Thermal motion and heat

  • The connection between temperature and mass and speed $$(3/2)*k_BT=\frac 12 m\langle v^2\rangle$$ when temperature is in degrees Kelvin above absolute zero.
  • $\langle v^2\rangle$ means the average value of the square of speed of the molecules. Not all molecules are moving the same speed, some faster and some slower.
  • Vaporization, evaporation and evaporative cooling: The fastest molecules are the ones most likely to leave the liquid, leaving behind the slower moving ones, which now have slower average speed than before, and slower average means lower temperature.
  • The connection between temperature, thermal motion and electromagnetic radiation (IR and visible light...)
  • atomic motion and Pressure which is force / area.
  • thermal motion and phases of matter: All atoms/molecules are attracted to each other--weakly or strongly. Connection to melting point / freezing point.