Main Page

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This is the main page for Geophysics 300 -- Physics of the Earth. You will be using this page to start your wiki projects. We will also modify this page as necessary so that it becomes a valuable resource for others interested in this course or Geophysics in general. I know we will have fun developing this wiki.

I have protected the Main Page so that you can not edit it. I want to have some control of the content of the Main Page. If you think something should be changed, make a note on the discussion page. I am not opposed to changes, I just want to have approval of them.

Contents

Things to know

  1. I have modified the wiki so that certain items are in predefined areas of the wiki. The Community portal has information about our wiki community. The Help page has some links to help you work with the wiki. Check out these two navigation tools in the navigation menu on the left side of the wiki.
  2. Some of you will have to write equations as part of your wiki. You will probably write these equations using the math tag (<math> </math>). In the edit window, the math tag is the button with the \sqrt{n} symbol. Here is an example of how to write the Universal Law of Gravity in LaTeX using the wiki in math mode. 
 \vec{a} = \mathbf{G} \frac{ m_{1}m_{2} }{ r^{2} } \vec{r}

The \vec indicates that the text between the { } is a vector (with an arrow above it), \mathbf makes G bold; \frac{ }{ } is the division symbol for longer expressions (the numerator is in the first set of braces, the denominator in the second set of braces; and the _ and ^ are the subscript and superscript symbols. Note that { } separate various parts of the text. For example, in \vec{a}, the braces indicate that the vector is a. Be very careful with the braces to make sure they enclose the proper text and that they are paired. The output of this LaTeX formula is: 

\vec{a}=\mathbf{G}\frac{m_{1}m_{2}}{r^{2}}\vec{r}

Go to the SandBox and try to write some equations on your own.

Interesting things

  1. The Idaho Museum of Mining and Geology (IMMG) Seismograph station puts events on the

Public Seismic Network web site. Go to the Public Seismic Network site to get a GIF image of the earthquake in Nevada on February 21, 2008 on this page.

Things to try

  1. Play around with the navigation and toolbox menus on the left side.
  2. I have created a wiki called SandBox which you can use to practice editing. Every once in a while, I will erase what's in the SandBox, so don't leave anything there you wish to keep without copying it someplace else.
  3. Another thing you should try is to make your own wiki page thats linked to your name. On this page, you could put information about yourself. In the Members section, edit your name so that it has two brackets around it, and User:yourname then a pipe, then your name. See the line Bill Clement for the format. Then save the edits, go to the MainPage and click on your name on the Members list. You will be sent to a page that hasn't yet been created. Just type in something about yourself, then save. That's really all there is to making an internal wiki page. (Go to Bill Clement for an example of what I wrote).

Groups

We now have 4 groups to work on wiki projects. The projects, and their group members are:

Useful links

Miscellaneous

To get to the regular web page for this class, follow this link Physics of the Earth - Geophysics 300

Here is a great link to the USGS earthquake page.

If you want to look at real seismograms, go to the REV site. REV stands for Rapid Earthquake Viewer. It's a slick web site.

Writing

A writing link from Monash University in Australia. I haven't looked at it in detail, but at first glance it looks helpful.
I have another writing page, Tips and Books on Writing Well, that I put together. I hope you find it helpful.

Thinking critically

Here is a link to The Critical Thinking Community. They have many interesting articles. Two I think you might like are Defining Critical Thinking and The Critical Mind is A Questioning Mind. Enjoy these when you need a boost in critical thinking. --Bill 13:06, 5 February 2008 (MST)

Critical Appraisal of Web resources

Useful resources to make sure you are getting good information from the web:
Berkeley guide
Ithaca College site
UCLA web site

Helpful Homework Links

Please suggest links that you found helpful for solving homework problems. Put those links on the discussion page since the Main Page is protected.

  • Check out spherical trigonometry to help with geometry on a sphere. You can move around from there for more help. --Bill 09:32, 31 January 2008 (MST)
  • Wikipedia is a good place to start for those of you have difficulty with integrals. The article talks about antiderivatives and definite integrals. Don't get bogged down in the details. Integrals find the area under the function between the x-axis and the integral's limits. Derivatives find the slope of the function (curve) at a point on the curve. These concepts are used alot in geophphysics, so having an intuitive understanding is important; actually being able to do an integral is not so important. Either the professor or the text will do it for you, or you can find a similar integral from a compiled list (integral table) that lets you solve the problem. Trigonometry and algebra are the mathematical areas most used. You manipulate the formulas using trigonometry and algebra into a form that you can interpret. Or get into a form that is similar to one of the integrals in the integral table. Really, most math that you use, even as a scientist, is trigonometry and algebra! That is why I have emphasized the Pythagorean Theorem. It is probably the most widely used mathematical expression.

Members

Things still to do

Let's start a WikiRules page for our class. For now, just list ideas about what wiki-ettiquette should be for our class..

Find internet protocol rules from BSU. BSU has some rules for students when they are using Internet services provided by BSU. We should be aware of those rules so we dont get in trouble.

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