Agronomy 405/505
Spring 2011
Problem Set 1
Due Tuesday, January 18, 2011.
Assigned January 11, 2011.
1. Review “Style Conventions” and Tables 1 through 4 in “Guide for Metric Practice” linked on
the course website.
Write out the unit mmol in full (i.e. how it would be written without using abbreviations).
Write two correct forms of the abbreviation for the units “watts per square meter.”
Use the “Guide for Metric Practice” as the authority for the rest of the course: there are
mistakes in Chapter 1 of Campbell and Norman regarding units. (If you find mistakes in the
book, let me know, we’ll compile a list.)
2. 1.1 in Campbell and Norman.
3. 1.2 in Campbell and Norman.
4. 1.3 in Campbell and Norman.
5. 1.4 in Campbell and Norman.
6. Simplify the following equation.
d
dx
Z
x
f (k) dk
(1)
a
7. A short tutorial for MATLAB written by one of my former professors is available on the course
webpage in either PDF or HTML. Read and do the examples in MATLAB. Please read up to
(and including) Section 3.2, Scripts and Functions. Then read Section 5, Advanced Graphics.
Finally read Section 7, Efficiency in MATLAB. Recreate Figures 1 through 5 and 7, insert
them into a word processor, and print them out on one or two sheets of paper.
8. Read “This kilogram has a weight–loss problem” and/or “Holey moley... a more reliable
kilogram” on the course website. What’s wrong with the kilogram standard? Describe one
possible the solution.
1