Help me write a Firefly Exam Question by Kumo

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Help me write a Firefly Exam Question

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POSTED BY: KUMO
UPDATED: Sunday, August 28, 2011 23:30
SHORT URL: http://bit.ly/re8GQP
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Saturday, August 6, 2011 1:18 AM

Hi Guys (Browncoats?),

I'm kind of new to the online Firefly community but I wanted to ask for your help.

I'm in a position to write a quiz at uni for a Dynamics course (with ~200 students) that I tutor and I really want to pay tribute to the series.

What I want from you guys are any ideas you think would be good Firefly based scenarios for a dynamics question (most probably projectile motion and rectangular co-ordinates ie. using i and j vectors for velocity and acceleration).

Admittedly it will be a very brief question so keep the references very simple and I'll probably only be able to mention Serenity (or a Firefly class ship if I can manage it).

I need to submit it by the 9th of August for review.

"Faster would be better!"
-Kumo

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Saturday, August 6, 2011 3:26 AM

JENJEN

not to fret!

What about a question regarding the ship and the electric net from Our Mrs. Reynolds? Something about trajectory, time, acceleration, or what-have-you. Say a group of people are stranded in a ship that's destined for an electric net and must figure out how to change trajectory, given x + y? I dunno, I was never that great at coming up with sciencey questions. :)

~Shiny!

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Saturday, August 6, 2011 4:17 AM

NEWOLDBROWNCOAT

How 'bout a barn swallow question?
"If ship 1weighs t tons is moving north at x miles per hour, and mule y is moving south at y mph and weighs j tons, how much braking force is used when they encounter each other, and how much is required to safely land the smaller inside the larger?"

Something along those lines...

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Saturday, August 6, 2011 4:47 AM

KUMO

Yeah, that was the most exciting thing that came to mind when I considered involving Firefly but that'd involve momentum and that hasn't been covered yet.

This quiz is only for week 3 of semester - the quiz last week was a, "Find the displacement given the equation for acceleration" or something.

I'm thinking it's going to have to be a simple projectile motion question like JenJen said. Like from Jaynestown with the money (in a safe?) falling out of Jayne's plane, but that would need some creative interpretation to include Serenity...

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Saturday, August 6, 2011 5:15 PM

STINKINGROSE

"Your ship is being pursued by Reavers, who are flying with zero core containment so you are fleeing being eaten and/or dangerous irradiation levels. Your pilot pulls a "Crazy Ivan" at 30km above the planet's surface, at Vi 200km/sec. How many seconds after your ship goes into a stall do you need to restart the engine, how much altitude will you lose, and what is the acceleration you need to achieve within the first five seconds after restarting to outrun your pursuers. Remember: if you do not escape you get et.. no pressure." Bonus points if you can calculate approximate pitch and yaw, name the pilot, or hum the music playing in the background."

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Saturday, August 6, 2011 6:48 PM

KUMO

Cool question rose, but the hardest thing I'm facing with this question is that I have to keep it in the form of a standard question and have basically no Firefly jargon at all because you can't risk confusing anyone.

Also, a blatantly obvious reference will overpower the question and I won't be able to justify the question to the lecturer. In which case I might be asked to remove all references...

What I need is a reference anyone who has seen Firefly will get, and yet won't add any complexity to the question itself which will probably lead to the lecturer requesting for it to be changed.

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Sunday, August 7, 2011 6:31 AM

STINKINGROSE

"Well you could of said.."

Hey, I've only taken the first non-calc physics course so far and am taking Calc 1 right now... so it's not surprising that my problem was crap!
Good luck with it.

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Sunday, August 7, 2011 1:00 PM

RYCE

Or you could do Jayne being lowered out of Serenity onto the train

No power in the 'verse can stop me!

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Sunday, August 7, 2011 1:25 PM

TRAVELER

I think it would work better if you opened the hatch and let Jayne drop from a moving Serenity at high orbit.

http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=28764731
Traveler

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Sunday, August 7, 2011 1:31 PM

KUMO

Hey rose, your problem wasn't crap - it would actually have made a pretty good take home assignment question for a more advanced class if you clearly stated what exactly a "Crazy Ivan" was and had clear diagrams. This is only going to be for an in-class 30 minute quiz.
Good luck with your studies. What are you studying anyway?

Also, I just got the go-ahead from the co-ordinator to stick a reference in as long as I don't confuse anyone who might get caught up in the wording and lose sight of the answer we are looking for.

Thanks all for your help, I'm still open for firefly themes though - I'll post up the quiz when it gets finalised.

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Sunday, August 7, 2011 1:46 PM

STINKINGROSE

I'm getting all the science and math I avoided the first time around. Long story.

How about a little ballistics: "You're a space cowboy. The hull of your ship will be pierced by a projectile traveling at (x) velocity. Your gun releases a bullet with Vo (y). You have the artificial gravity on. How far does your bullet have to go to slow down to a non-hull-puncturing speed if you miss the space pirate trying to kill you? Alternatively, how much do you have to lower the gravity to make it safe(ish) for a shoot out in a space 100m by 100m?

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Sunday, August 7, 2011 1:48 PM

KUMO

Yeah, like Traveler says, the most promising theme at this time is for something (Jayne or a crate of goods?) to drop out of the Serenity while it flies at a given speed. I think that will fit best what has been covered in lecture since the quiz has to reflect this.

Keep the references flowing though, the quiz is FAR from complete.

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Sunday, August 7, 2011 5:04 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht

Rose, I loved your question. Maybe s/he can use something like it later when the class gets more advanced and they've all seen the pilot episode.
:))) S/He'll be the best dynamics professor on earth that ... still is.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Monday, August 8, 2011 5:17 AM

BYTEMITE

Well, let's see. Projectile motion.

Pilot episode there's some gun-play, like Jayne sniping the fellow in the tall hat, or Zoe managing to shoot from her back and the ground. Or you could have your students calculate how long a pair of Independent soldiers have to get out of the way of the path of a Alliance ship that's been shot down, ship traveling at x speed to start with when it's shot down, and assuming Hera has approximately Earth gravity.

For The Train Job, someone could calculate whether the crew will manage to jump into Serenity's airlock and escape, or if they'll fall.

Bushwhacked the Alliance blows up the derelict at the end, but that wouldn't involve the Earth value for g.

Nothing I can think of in Shindig (barbrawl?) or Safe (Jayne hanging from the belly airlock with a sniper rifle?).

Best I can think of for OMR is trying to shoot out the net, though again, no Earth value for g. The trajectory question suggested would be more of a vector question, not sure if that's what's wanted.

Jaynestown, that money drop might work.

Out of Gas: Got nothing.

Ariel: also nothing.

War Stories: Only thing I can think of is another vector question with flying blind at the skyplex.

Trash: Nope.

The Message: The fed tries to shoot Serenity with missiles at one point, if I remember, you could model a problem about whether the missiles will hit Serenity, or if they'll impact on the snow covered tunnel Wash was aiming for.

Nothing for Heart of Gold or Objects in Space either.

Serenity: Barn swallow maybe. Another option is Book attempting to shoot down the Alliance fighter while defending Haven, even though that wasn't on screen.

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Monday, August 8, 2011 5:30 AM

BYTEMITE

Hmm, no, that first suggestion might be too easy. What if you have them back calculate the initial speed of the falling Alliance fighter craft instead?

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Monday, August 8, 2011 2:30 PM

KUMO

Hahah, it is my plan to gradually introduce more Firefly to those who are interested.

I like how you said that the class getting more advanced involves watching more Firefly - as opposed to studying more Dynamics :D

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Monday, August 8, 2011 2:57 PM

KUMO

Wow Bytemite, I really appreciate your thorough analysis of all the possible scenarios!

I was just going to say Serenity drops crate - find how long it takes to hit the ground/how far it travels in the x direction.

You guys have inspired me to go for something more audacious and have either Jayne jumping out of Serenity with a parachute onto a train (which is travelling at a constant speed) OR have Serenity drop credits and/or supplies onto Jaynestown.

I've got the solution down - just need to finalise and submit. Even if the lecturer insists I remove some references, I'll keep Serenity in.

I'll keep you guys posted.

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Sunday, August 28, 2011 11:30 PM

KUMO

Sorry about the long silence guys, but things went pear shaped. The lecturer claimed that this question was in principle too similar to a question from the text book - to which the majority of the students have found the answers online and the quiz being open book resulted in my question being ignored and the lecturer substituting it with his own...

I'm really sorry I couldn't get it through but there is still a faint hope that I may be able to get a Firefly theme into a future quiz.

Regardless, here's what the question would have looked like:

http://users.tpg.com.au/adslecbt/serenityq2.docx

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