180 Question References
Introduction: Rules and Guidelines
This website provides references for the infamous ``180 Questions" for the MIT Astrophysics Part III exam. Its purpose is to facilitate the studying process, and hopefully (at least somewhat) decrease the stress associated with the Part III exam.
This page is very much a work in progress- anybody who finds a good reference for any of these questions should feel free to add it to the list. There is no limit to the number of references that may be added for any given question, but please obey the following guidelines when submitting references:
1) Add your reference to the reference list at the beginning of this document and assign it a short and unique reference code by which it will be referred to within the main body of the document. Please do this even if you think that the referenced book or source will only be used by one question.
2) Include the edition number as part of the reference name. (ie, CO1 and CO2 refer to Carroll and Ostlie's An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics, editions 1 and 2, respectively.) Different editions can have surprisingly different layouts and information.
3) Localize the key passages as well as possible. For example, if the question deals with planet formation, cite ``CO2, pgs. 857-869" or ``CO2, Section 23.2". Simply stating ``CO2" is really not very helpful.
4) For each of the 180 questions, try to list the references in order of decreasing importance, so that the first references are the best. We don't want the gems buried under an avalanche of pebbles and stones.
5) This isn't so much a rule, but feel free to divide the questions into multiple parts. Some of these 180 questions have multiple parts to them, and the best references may be different for the different parts. (This is especially important for the lore questions.)
6) When possible, cite references that are easily accessible to all people at all times, present AND future. For example, while a private communication with person A might have provided the best information on Question X, person A will most likely graduate within a year or two. So please don't reference these private communications. Class notes are a little different, since they could theoretically be passed down from one class to the next IF AN ELECTRONIC VERSION EXISTS, but please try to avoid this as well. As a rule of thumb, let's allow class notes that have electronic versions which will probably be available for quite some time and ban class notes that are either taken by hand or refer to electronic notes that are not likely to be accessible in the near future.
That basically covers it. The more that people contribute to this list, the more useful that it becomes, so please add as much information as possible.
Reference List (alphabetical by reference code name):
CO2 Carroll, Bradley and Dale A. Ostlie. ``An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics, 2nd edition." San Francisco: Pearson Addison-Wesley, 2007.
