Image: The Eskimo Nebula, an immense gas cloud ejected by a dying star
(To learn more, click here)

For a printable version of this page, click here


About the on-line assignments and WebAssign

Three times a week you will have an on-line assignment in the form of a multiple-choice "pre-lecture quiz". These assignments are only available on the World Wide Web. (They are not available in printed form.) You can access these through the On-line Assignments page. Each on-line quiz will be due at 10 p.m. on the night before a lecture, and will cover material from the reading assignment for that lecture. You may consult the book as much as you like to figure out the answers.

All of the on-line quizzes are open-book, open-notes, and you may work with other people. You may take each on-line quiz two times. All of the answers can easily be found in the assigned readings. Each quiz will be available at least 48 hours before it is due.

You will take the on-line quizzes using WebAssign (https://www.webassign.net/student.html), a service of North Carolina State University. You must pay the user fee before the first on-line assignment is due (at 10 p.m. on Tuesday, January 17, 2006). You have two options for paying the user fee:
  • (more convenient) Once you have logged in (see below), click on Credit Card Registration and follow the instructions to pay with a credit card. The cost is $6.90.
  • (less convenient) Visit the UCSB Bookstore and buy a WebAssign access code card for $7.05 plus tax. Then, once you have logged in (see below), click on Enter Access Code and follow the instructions to enter the code printed on the card.
Log in to WebAssign as follows. NOTE: You will not have access to the WebAssign system until 10 p.m. on Tuesday, January 3, 2006.
  • Go to the WebAssign student login page (https://www.webassign.net/student.html).
  • Enter your user name. This is the same as your seven-digit perm number.
  • Enter your institution code. This is ucsb.
  • Enter your password.
    • If you are a new WebAssign user, your password has been set to your perm number. You should change this right away for security, but make sure that you remember your new password!
    • If you used WebAssign previously in another class in physics, astronomy, or another subject, use the same password that you used in that class.
If you added the class recently, you may not yet be in the WebAssign database. Contact your instructor if you are unable to log in to WebAssign.

You will also be able to check your scores on the written homework, on-line assignments, and exams using WebAssign.

Once the deadline for a WebAssign assignment has passed, you can see the solution key (and explanations of the answers). Once you are logged in to WebAssign, just click on the Past Assignments link. Then click on the name of the assignment of interest to see the solutions.


List of all on-line assignments
Each assignment is worth 0.174% of the total points for the course.
Each quiz will be available at least 48 hours before it is due.
Assignment number Due date Subject
1 Tuesday 1/17/06, 10 p.m. Reading assignment for Wednesday 1/18/06
2 Thursday 1/19/06, 10 p.m. Reading assignment for Friday 1/20/06
3 Sunday 1/22/06, 10 p.m. Reading assignment for Monday 1/23/06
4 Tuesday 1/24/06, 10 p.m. Reading assignment for Wednesday 1/25/06
5 Thursday 1/26/06, 10 p.m. Reading assignment for Friday 1/27/06
6 Sunday 1/29/06, 10 p.m. Reading assignment for Monday 1/30/06
7 Tuesday 1/31/06, 10 p.m. Reading assignment for Wednesday 2/1/06
8 Thursday 2/2/06, 10 p.m. Reading assignment for Friday 2/3/06
9 Sunday 2/5/06, 10 p.m. Reading assignment for Monday 2/6/06
10 Thursday 2/9/06, 10 p.m. Reading assignment for Friday 2/10/06
11 Sunday 2/12/06, 10 p.m. Reading assignment for Monday 2/13/06
12 Tuesday 2/14/06, 10 p.m. Reading assignment for Wednesday 2/15/06
13 Thursday 2/16/06, 10 p.m. Reading assignment for Friday 2/17/06
14 Tuesday 2/21/06, 10 p.m. Reading assignment for Wednesday 2/22/06
15 Thursday 2/23/06, 10 p.m. Reading assignment for Friday 2/24/06
16 Sunday 2/26/06, 10 p.m. Reading assignment for Monday 2/27/06
17 Tuesday 2/28/06, 10 p.m. Reading assignment for Wednesday 3/1/06
18 Thursday 3/2/06, 10 p.m. Reading assignment for Friday 3/3/06
19 Sunday 3/5/06, 10 p.m. Reading assignment for Monday 3/6/06
20 Thursday 3/9/06, 10 p.m. Reading assignment for Friday 3/10/06
21 Sunday 3/12/06, 10 p.m. Reading assignment for Monday 3/13/06
22 Tuesday 3/14/06, 10 p.m. Reading assignment for Wednesday 3/15/06
23 Thursday 3/16/06, 10 p.m. Reading assignment for Friday 3/17/06

Return to top of page

Return to Roger Freedman's home page

Send e-mail to Roger Freedman

Last updated 2005 December 31


Copyright ©2006 by the Regents of the University of California