Archives for the Month of January 2008 on Andy's Geol 390 Online Journal
Week 2
This week only had one day of class because of Martin Luther King Day. This was also the first day of professors presenting their research to us. Professor Hauck was first and talked to us about the paper we read. the paper we discussed was on his predictions for the MESSENGER flight to Mercury. Derek helped with the paper during the summer between his senior year and graduate school. The paper discussed the large bulk density of Mercury and possible solutions. Monte Carlo simulations were used to find the error in some possible answers. The class ended with Professor Hauck showing us his lab and the computers in it. For next week we are to read Professor Saylor's paper.
Week 1
This week was an introduction to the class on the first day and talked about the field of geology on the second day. The first day was mostly basic things like the course syllabus. The second day we read a few papers and had a discussion on whether or not geology is actually a science because it borrows so much from physics. Personally I feel that is science because it contains elements that are specific to the field concerning logic and reasoning. We were then assigned to read a paper from professor Hauck for next week's class.