Tue., Dec. 10

Music: NPR Tiny Desk Concert featuring Dessa (included "Fighting Fish", "The Man I Knew", and "The Lamb" ), "Skeleton Key", "Alibi", "551"
The course evaluation was conducted at the beginning of the period.  That allowed time for the grade summaries to make their way through class.

Late 1S1P reports will be accepted up to the date of the Final Exam.  You will receive half credit if they are reasonably well done.

A study outline for the Final Exam is available online. 

This semester with back-to-back sections of ATMO 170 is a little unusual.  I usually have a MWF section and a T Th section.  Then one of the final exams usually occurs early in final's week.  The second exam is usually a few days later.  Students can then take the final at either of the scheduled times.  Both finals occur on the same day this semester late in final's week.  As a convenience I have scheduled an early final.  It will be held from 8 - 10 am on Fri., Dec. 13 in Haury 129.  Seating is somewhat limited, so if you would like to take the final at this alternate time you must let me know by email ahead of time.

When I am teaching a MWF section of the class we also begin reviewing for the final exam on Wednesday, the last day of classes during the semester.  We usually manage to get through the first 5 or 6 topics on the Study Outline.  I didn't do that this year but am reproducing the notes from a review that was held during the Spring 2013 semester.  This will give you an idea of the level of detail that you should try to attain while studying for the exam.

The large numbers at the top left or right corner of each figure refer to sections on the Study Outline.




Dew point temperature is not shown above.  The dew point provides a measure of the amount of water vapor in the air.





You should probably add particulate matter to the list.  Particulate matter refers to very small particles that remain suspended in the air.  Particulates make the air look hazy and reduce visibility.  They can be inhaled and are a health hazard (small particles penetrate further into the lungs than larger particles).  Clouds and precipitation are the best way of removing particulates from the air (the sky often turns a deep blue color following a rainstorm).




Thinning of the ozone layer in the stratosphere is not the cause of climate change and global warming.  The small additional amount of UV light arriving at the ground will not cause global warming.  That UV light can cause skin cancer and cataracts, that sort of thing, but not global warming.





The tops of thunderstorms (which form in unstable air in the troposphere), the summit of Mt. Everest, and cruising altitude in a commercial airliner are all around 30,000 ft. altitude and near the top of the troposphere.





You don't need to remember the ideal gas law equations, I'll write them on the board before the start of the exam just like was done before the quizzes this semester.




Your overall grade in the class will depend on this second average (with the lowest quiz score dropped) and your score on the Final Exam.

We did a couple of example calculations that determine what score you would need on the final to either raise your grade or to preserve the grade you currently have.  The numbers below are different from the ones used in the examples in class.

Let's look at the first situation.


In this case I try to maximize the benefit that the Final Exam can have on your overall grade.  40% of your overall grade is determined by the Final Exam score.


In this example we assume your current grade is 77.5%, a C+.  You want to raise your overall grade to a B (80%).  The calculation shows that you would need to score 83.8% on the exam to end up with a B.

The other option is that you're happy with your current grade.  What do you need on the exam to keep that grade?

In this case the exam score is only 20% of your overall grade.  This is to minimize the damage it can do.

We'll use the same 77.5% for the current grade and figure out how badly you can do on the exam and still end up with a C.


The calculation shows you only need to earn 40% to keep the C.