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Top Document: [sci.astro,sci.astro.seti] Resources (Frequently Asked Previous Document: A.03 What are the guidelines for posting on astronomy (sci.astro*) newsgroups? Next Document: A.05 Can I get help on my homework from the Net? See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge
Steven Willner <swillner@cfa.harvard.edu>
A recurring subject of discussion is the posting of homework problems.
Students should NOT ask readers to solve their homework problems in detail
in this group because they are supposed to do it themselves in the first
place, and readers are unlikely to be sympathetic to a lazy attitude. More
importantly, answers are not guaranteed to be correct (far from that!), and
instead of getting an answer, you may initiate a long and useless
discussion on factors of two. Do not try to disguise homework: long time
readers (there are many) will detect it and you will get flamed!
However, if there is a concept you do not understand in a problem and
would like some guidance or some help getting started (not the solution),
then feel free to ask. Or if you find conflicting sources, it's fine to
ask about that. Basically, think of the net as a group of friends. You
wouldn't ask your friends to do your homework for you, but you might well
ask for help in the circumstances described. Of course it's up to you to
evaluate the answers you get!
Please keep in mind that articles take anywhere from one hour to several
days to propagate to other sites. Therefore, it is hopeless to get an
answer for an assignment you have to turn in the next day, or after the
weekend... USENET is NOT a last minute solution!
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Last Update March 27 2014 @ 02:11 PM
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with stars, then every direction you looked would eventually end on
the surface of a star, and the whole sky would be as bright as the
surface of the Sun.
Why would anyone assume this? Certainly, we have directions where we look that are dark because something that does not emit light (is not a star) is between us and the light. A close example is in our own solar system. When we look at the Sun (a star) during a solar eclipse the Moon blocks the light. When we look at the inner planets of our solar system (Mercury and Venus) as they pass between us and the Sun, do we not get the same effect, i.e. in the direction of the planet we see no light from the Sun? Those planets simply look like dark spots on the Sun.
Olbers' paradox seems to assume that only stars exist in the universe, but what about the planets? Aren't there more planets than stars, thus more obstructions to light than sources of light?
What may be more interesting is why can we see certain stars seemingly continuously. Are there no planets or other obstructions between them and us? Or is the twinkle in stars just caused by the movement of obstructions across the path of light between the stars and us? I was always told the twinkle defines a star while the steady light reflected by our planets defines a planet. Is that because the planets of our solar system don't have the obstructions between Earth and them to cause a twinkle effect?
9-14-2024 KP