SPACE MATH 1 pdf - ER - Nasa

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Teacher’s Guide 5Note, there are 21 flares in the table.X = 5 flaresM = 13 flaresC = 3 flares.The pie chart angles are21 = 360 degreesX = (5/21)x360 = 86 degreesM = (13/21)x360 = 223 degreesC = (3/21)x360 = 51 degrees.And to check: 223+86+51 = 360.Question 1: With a pie chart, what percentage of flares were X-type?Answer: 5 out of 21 or (5/21)x100% = 24%Question 2: During this 75-day period, what percentage of flares are X-class flares?Answer: There are 24 sunspots in the sample because the catalog numbers run from 720 to 698as stated in the table caption (A ‘reading to be informed’ activity). There were three sunspotslisted in the table that produced X-class flares: #696, #715, #720. The percentage is(3/24)x100% = 12.5% which may be rounded to 13%.Question 3: What percentage of sunspots did not produce flares during this time?Answer: There were only 8 sunspots in the table that produced flares, so there were 16 out of 24that did not produce any flares. This is (16/24)x100% = 67%. An important thing for students tonote is that MOST sunspots do not produce any significant flares.Question 4: What seems to be the minimum size for a sunspot that produces an X-class flare?An M-class flare? A C-class flare?Answer: Students may reasonably answer by saying that there doesn’t seem to be any definitecorrelation for the X and M-class flares! For X-class flares, you can have them if the area isbetween 180 and 1620. For M-class flares, spots with areas from 130 to 1630 can have them.The two possibilities overlap. For C-class flares, they seem to be most common in the smallerspots from 20 – 130 in area, but the sample in the table is so small we cant really tell if this is agenuine correlation or not. Also, we have only shown in the table the largest flares on a givenday, and smaller flares may also have occurred for many of these spots.Question 5: If the area of Earth is ‘169’ in the sunspot units used in the above tables, what arethe maximum and minimum size of the sunspots compared to the area of Earth?Answer: The smallest spot size occurred for #709 with an equivalent size of (20/169)x100% =11% of Earth’s area. The largest spot was #720 with a size equal to (1630/169) = 9.6 timesEarth’s area.Exploring Space Mathematicshttp://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry
Name ________________________________6Satellite technology is everywhere! Right now, there are over 1587 working satellites orbitingEarth. They represent over $160 billion in assets to the world’s economy. In the United Statesalone, satellites and the many services they provide produce over $225 billion every year. Butsatellites do not work forever. Typically they have to be replaced every 10 to 15 years as newservices are created, and better technology is developed. Satellites in the lowest orbits, calledLow Earth Orbit (LEO) orbit between 300 to 1000 kilometers above the ground. Because Earth’satmosphere extends hundreds of kilometers into space, LEO satellites eventually experienceenough frictional drag from the atmosphere that at altitudes below 300 km, they fall back toEarth and burn up. The table below gives the number of LEO satellites that re-entered Earth’satmosphere, and the average sunspot number, for each year since 1969.Year Sunspots Satellites2004 43 192003 66 312002 109 382001 123 412000 124 371999 96 251998 62 301997 20 211996 8 221995 18 201994 31 171993 54 281992 93 411991 144 401990 145 301989 162 451988 101 331987 29 131986 11 161985 16 171984 43 141983 65 281982 115 191981 146 321980 149 411979 145 421978 87 331977 26 181976 12 161975 14 151974 32 211973 37 141972 67 121971 66 191970 107 251969 105 26Figure: A typical weather satelliteQuestion 1: On the same graph, plot the numberof sunspots and decayed satellites (vertical axis)for each year (horizontal axis). During what yearsdid the peaks in the sunspots occur?Question 2: When did the peaks in the satellite reentriesoccur?Question 3: Is there a correlation between the twosets of data?Question 4: If you are a satellite operator, shouldyou be concerned about the sunspot cycle?Question 5: Do some research on the topic ofhow the sun affects Earth. Can you come up withat least two ways that the sun could affect asatellite’s orbit?Question 6: Can you list some different ways thatyou rely on satellites, or satellite technology, duringa typical week?Exploring Space Mathematicshttp://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry
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