Help me write a Firefly Exam Question

POSTED BY: Kumo
UPDATED: Monday, August 29, 2011 09:30
VIEWED: 6674
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KUMO

Saturday, August 6, 2011 11:18 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

JENJEN

Saturday, August 6, 2011 1:26 PM

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!

NEWOLDBROWNCOAT

Saturday, August 6, 2011 2:17 PM

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...

KUMO

Saturday, August 6, 2011 2:47 PM

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...

STINKINGROSE

Sunday, August 7, 2011 3:15 AM

"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."

KUMO

Sunday, August 7, 2011 4:48 AM

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.

STINKINGROSE

Sunday, August 7, 2011 4:31 PM

"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.

RYCE

Sunday, August 7, 2011 11:00 PM

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

No power in the 'verse can stop me!

TRAVELER

Sunday, August 7, 2011 11:25 PM

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

KUMO

Sunday, August 7, 2011 11:31 PM

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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