I was thinking of ideas for the site, and I hope I am not being presumptious, here are a couple of ideas that I had:

competitions

a course (which I can administer - just think of what I had to fo for my MEd)

whay would others suggest?

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Damien,
International Baccalaureate Physics teacher
Optics, Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing Instrumentation Major
Admin: Pacific Science and Art

Mind if I ask, what kind of competition is in ur mind now?

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We come without a thing and gone without a thing. We need simple life. A cup of teas and a couple of meals per day, that is good enough. And this is my standard of living.

look in the Totally of Topic forum, kashi has one ongoing - chess - i let him win a game

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Damien,
International Baccalaureate Physics teacher
Optics, Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing Instrumentation Major
Admin: Pacific Science and Art

ha

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Climate Change Australia

But I must admit, that the chess setup that kashi has linked us to is pretty awesome! It is easy enough to do and quite fun.

By the way, if i get enough support i can write a free course.

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Damien,
International Baccalaureate Physics teacher
Optics, Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing Instrumentation Major
Admin: Pacific Science and Art

What does that mean, write a free course? And what kind of support do you need?

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The Force that through the green fuse drives the flower...drives my green age!
It is only with the heart that things can be seen clearly; what is essential is invisible to the eye!

an academic course, i am qualified to do so and will gladly write a free course for the forum, only for the price of a reference and some people to proof read the course maaterial that i develop.

And mostly, to get Frasers blessing

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Damien,
International Baccalaureate Physics teacher
Optics, Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing Instrumentation Major
Admin: Pacific Science and Art

Like an astronomy course? Sounds like fun. You don't need my blessing.

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Fraser Cain
Publisher
Universe Today - Free space news delivered by email every weekday.

excellent, i will start as soon as i can, it won't be ready for a little while though, but soon enough. I might start with a solar system one.

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Damien,
International Baccalaureate Physics teacher
Optics, Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing Instrumentation Major
Admin: Pacific Science and Art

i don't really understand this, my bad english

you mean you making a game CHESS but on astronomical style?
maybe I can help you on some things what you need

thats alright tycho

2 plans:

1. an online chess tournament..see kashi's pinned topic in totally off topic

2. an online free astronomy course that i am going to write

your input would be most appreciated!

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Damien,
International Baccalaureate Physics teacher
Optics, Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing Instrumentation Major
Admin: Pacific Science and Art

:huh: Solar System? That is what I am taking now during night school... too many calculations ><

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We come without a thing and gone without a thing. We need simple life. A cup of teas and a couple of meals per day, that is good enough. And this is my standard of living.

tiny if you can/want to, please feel free to suggest ideas for the forum....it'd be nice for a lot of people to make an input.

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Damien,
International Baccalaureate Physics teacher
Optics, Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing Instrumentation Major
Admin: Pacific Science and Art

What do you mean too many caluclations?
If your'e talking about scaling down the solar system, it's so easy you don't even need algebra, let alone geometry, trig. or calculas.
Start with the size you want the Sun to be and go from there.
Now in metric, I'd be at a loss, but in the English system is a total snap.

Lets say for example your Sun is 1 foot across. Again this is patheticly easy.
Start with distances and come back for sizes.

Mercury will be roughly 36 feet. Which will place Venus at 67 feet, Earth at 93 feet, and Mars at 1,42 feet. Jupiter 4,84 feet, Saturn at 8,87 feet, Uranus will be around 17,84 feet, Neptune 27,96, and Pluto at around 36,66 feet.
Now how did I do that? Bodes Law? No, even more simple then that.

If you are using feet for your scale, it is divideable by exactly one million miles for every foot. It's not entirely acurate, but actually more acurate then Bode's Law.

Now to make the sizes more meaningful let's make the Sun 10 feet instead. In which case multipy all your distances by ten.

Jupiter is 1/12 the size of the Sun, or 10 inches in this scale. Saturn is roughly 85% of Jupiters size, or 8 1/2 inches. Uranus and Neptune are each about one quarter of that, 2 1/8 inches.
Earth is slightly over 10% of Saturns size, or nearly 9/10 of an inch.
Venus is almost exactly 10% of Saturns size, 4/5 of an inch.
Mars is 38% the size of Earth, just over 3/10 of an inch.
Mercury is 3/4 the size of Mars, about 1/10 of an inch,
and Pluto is roughly half of that, 1/20 of an inch.

The moons Ganymede, Callisto, and Titan are nearly the same as Mercury.
Callisto slightly smaller, and the other two slightly larger.
Our Moon, Io, and Europa are about halfway between the sizes of Mercury and Pluto. Triton is a bit larger then Pluto. Then Titania, Oberon, and Rhea, and Iatepus, are just over half of Pluto's size.

It's a simple matter of knowing the relationship of each body to the next smaller body. It helps to have a good memory and an interest to begin with.
You can use that proceedure and totally amaze your teachers of how fast and acurately you can plot the sizes and distances.

Thats some fantastic lesson planning Planetwatcher! Its actually given some ideas about what I could include in the course that i am writing.

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Damien,
International Baccalaureate Physics teacher
Optics, Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing Instrumentation Major
Admin: Pacific Science and Art

Planetwatcher, well done, that's a great way to visualise the size of the planets in relation to one another and the scale of the solar system as a whole.

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"The stars are my home"
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe... Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion... I've watched c-beams glitter in the dark, near the Tanhauser Gate... all those moments will be lost, in time... like tears in the rain..."

Congratulations PlanetWatcher - you know your stuff, and can communicate it well to us less knowledgable. Well done! B)

Ehmm Did I miss something here?

VanderL, he's talking distance from the sun.

Damionpaul, I am looking forward to your course, definately interested in giving it a shot.

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All civilizations become either spacefaring or extinct.~ Carl Sagan ~

Humanity must rise above the Earth, to the top of the atmosphere and beyond, for only then will we fully understand the world in which we live.~Socrates, 500 B.C. ~

Let every man judge according to his own standards, by what he has himself read, not by what others tell him. ~Albert Einstein~

Ha! Naughty nit-picking VanderL.

A zero was left-off in typeo - you know that. :P

LOL Chook - I think you'll find it's meant to be just 142 feet... not 1420 LOL He inserted a "," by mistake.

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"The stars are my home"
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe... Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion... I've watched c-beams glitter in the dark, near the Tanhauser Gate... all those moments will be lost, in time... like tears in the rain..."

Quote DippyHippy:
"LOL Chook - I think you'll find it's meant to be just 142 feet... not 1420 LOL He inserted a "," by mistake."

:huh: :unsure: h34r: Gag! Gulp! Sorry fellas! (Now I'll do my fly up!)