OBJECTIVE:  I will be able to characterize each of the 5 epochs of the Universe during today's class

WORDS FOR TODAY:

• Tunneling
• Proton Decay
• Epoch

WORK O' THE DAY: 

Let's review our Big 6 time line items -- quickly!

Now let's review our SpaceTime geometry and associated ideas for our 4 BIGS regarding the eventually fate of the Universe.

• Ultimate Fate?
• Timeline?
• Geometry: Spherical/Flat/Hyperbolic
  • Open/Closed/Flat --- what do those mean?

 

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Please spend some time finalizing your 5 Epochs chart.

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There is an awful lot going on in this unit. I'm certainly aware of just how intimidating each of those scientific papers are and I'm open to adjustments.

 

Something along these lines perhaps:

• The scientific papers analysis offers the greatest reward along with the greatest risk. Having said that I will be MUCH more gentle grading those, assuming of course the effort is there. Cut and paste sorts of things, uh, not so much.

• I'm agreeable to summarizing more generalized accounts of those papers (so a summary of a summary so-to-speak). Having said that, that approach is a great deal less difficult, so the risk part is low-- so I'm thinking less chance of earning I higher score. Make sure to put a link to the paper/article you intent to reference when you submit your proposal.

Here's my thinking for the end of this unit:

I'm *hoping* that many of us find the Asimovian End-of-the-Universe rather compelling stuff and I want to give you the opportunty to dive in and explore it.

• A straight-up quiz on terms. Very boolean, either you know it or you don't. Multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank sorta stuff on the above. Yay!

A TFAD (Teacher For A Day) presentation in which you pick one section of that VERY TECHNICAL READING (you have to sign up for it first) and explain it to us in words that an articulate 10th grader can understand. A VERY rare possibility exists here for an extra credit point (that's an increase of 4% by the way) for explaining the math. However you have to check with me FIRST. You'll need to make a proposal first and have me sign off on it.

• Using AI to help you understand the reading is acceptable as long as you truly understand your work and you don't include any terms that you don't understand

A TFAD (Teacher For A Day) presentation in which you pick one of the BRAND SPANKIN' NEW theories of why the Universe doesn't (apparently) need Dark Matter and perhaps Dark Energy either and teach us the very basics presented there. Those theories were published in the last week or so (Seriously!). You'll need to make a proposal first and sign up for it too!

• Using AI to help you understand the reading is acceptable as long as you truly understand your work and you don't include any terms that you don't understand
• Theory/Paper #1 is HERE
• Theory/Paper #2 is HERE
• NOTE: Those papers are really, really opaque (which is to say VERY hard to read), talk to me before you do your proposal)
  

Your presentation should be appropriate to our class with the level of learning we are striving for in this unit.

You will present your finds to the class in the form of a fairly brief lesson plan based on the Mr W lesson plan format.

You will need to field questions from your classmates when you finish.

Classmates will create questions during your presentation and will turn those in at the end of the day and those question sheets will, in turn, be graded

 

We have a lot to talk about, but for now let that sort of percolate inside your grey matter between your ears!

Please grab about 4 feet of butcher paper (please be a bit more careful cutting today!) and divide it into 5 equal sections.

Please label each section according to the η sections below.

Now please huddle with your team in a remote (?) part of the room or very nearby out in the hallway and watch THIS MOST AWESOME video shared with us by Christian M. in my 4th period class.

Take appropriate notes in each η section. Stop/start/advance/rewind the video as needed. It goes 30 minutes so we probably won't finish today.

We took a look at this VERY TECHNICAL READING:

Oh and η is pronounced and is the lower-case version of that Greek letter.

[A] The Radiation Dominated Era. 10^−∞ < η < 10⁴. This era corresponds to the usual time period in which most of the energy density of the universe is in the form of radiation.

[B] The Stelliferous Era. 10⁶ < η < 10¹⁴. Most of the energy generated in the universe arises from nuclear processes in conventional stellar evolution.

[C] The Degenerate Era. 10¹⁵ < η < 10³⁷. Most of the mass in the universe is locked up in degenerate stellar objects: brown dwarfs, white dwarfs, and neutron stars.

[D] The Black Hole Era. 10³⁸ < η < . 10¹⁰⁰ The only star-like objects remaining are black holes of widely differing masses, which are actively evaporating during this era.

[E] The Dark Era. η >10¹⁰⁰. At this late time, protons have decayed and black holes have evaporated. Only the waste products from these processes remain: mostly photons of colossal wavelength, neutrinos, electrons, and positrons.

We can really only guess at what will happen during this era so far in the future, there is simply too much uncertainty in our models.

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