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PM is fine, or you can post it right here. Whatever you prefer.

Southeastern PA regional exam is up on the test exchange.

Thanks again for the state test. My partner spent an hour doing it and two hours going over it, adding to our notes and whatnot. We did notice, however, a typo in the key. On question #45, the key says the answer is 1.5 magnitudes, but amplitude is defined as half the distance between crest and trough, so we think it should be ~.7 magnitudes.

lmatkovic3 wrote:Thanks again for the state test. My partner spent an hour doing it and two hours going over it, adding to our notes and whatnot. We did notice, however, a typo in the key. On question #45, the key says the answer is 1.5 magnitudes, but amplitude is defined as half the distance between crest and trough, so we think it should be ~.7 magnitudes.

I guess maybe Cicc should explain his thoughts/whether you are right or not, but I thought since it was implying the whole pulsation sort of it was ~1.5.

I thought the amplitude for a cepheid was the difference in magnitude at maximum and minimum. I see what you are saying in terms of mechanical wave theory, but the only evidence I can provide is that delta Cep is described as having an amplitude of nearly 1 mag, and it ranges from about 3.6 to about 4.4.

JCicc wrote:I thought the amplitude for a cepheid was the difference in magnitude at maximum and minimum. I see what you are saying in terms of mechanical wave theory, but the only evidence I can provide is that delta Cep is described as having an amplitude of nearly 1 mag, and it ranges from about 3.6 to about 4.4.

That makes sense. I just wasn't sure of the explanation when I was going over our missed questions with my partner. Thank you!

Do we need to know any hard astrophysics? Like aside from parallax, Stefan-Boltzmann's, distance modulus, redshift, Wien's, etc.?

BYHscioly wrote:Do we need to know any hard astrophysics? Like aside from parallax, Stefan-Boltzmann's, distance modulus, redshift, Wien's, etc.?

By that are you asking whether for nats you need to know about astronomical math? I would say definitely know those. I think before on the forums some things have been mentioned. On the wiki there is an equation sheet (that's only meant to act as some examples, I recommend copying it, but definitely edit it and add to it to your liking). Cicc's test also has some very nice math on X-ray binaries, cepheids, and pulsars if I recall. Some nats tests are available online either on the test exchange or elsewhere. Any areas you're worried about specifically?

I was just hoping there wouldn't be any of that college physics stuffs.

Are the scores for the PA tests released? If so, are they online? We took a practice test so...

If you want, you can PM the PA State writer, Mr. Cicc (JCicc on the forums), to ask for scores; I don't know if he wants them posted publicly.

I think, however, that I'm allowed to tell you that the high score this year was a 74, with the Top 5 stretching down to 60. Last year's high score was an 88, with the Top 5 down to 58.