This course will lead you on the longest and farthest journey
possible. You will travel through the known Universe and back in time
to only moments after the Big Bang. There are two principal course goals:
-
You will become familiar with the fundamental constituents of the Universe
(Galaxies, Stars, Gas, Dust, Particles, and Radiation); and
-
You will develop an understanding (and, hopefully, an appreciation) of how science works and how we know what we know.
Along the way, you'll learn about the Four Forces of Physics
that describe virtually everything in the physical Universe. You'll
learn about light - both how it's generated and how we
interpret what we see. And through your efforts you will learn to view
the sky (and the rest of the world!) in a new way.
The course is organized into four sections:
- Naked-Eye Astronomy: The tool that the first Astronomers used!
- Tools of Astronomy: The Physics of Light; fundamental forces
- Stars: Their birth, life, and death
- Galaxies and Cosmology: The Origin and Fate of the Universe
For more details, look at the Syllabus
Format
This is not a course on the memorization of facts and
recipes.
In fact you should use Google for
that. This course will be an interactive exploration of the
concepts which govern our understanding of our home - the Universe.
Through course readings, homeworks, projects, and lively and
active discussions each week (see
Requirements for more details) you will build, with the help of
your classmates, a foundation of knowledge of astronomy and science as
a discipline.
This class will not be a passive experience.
Class time will be made up of a series of small lectures wrapped
around active discussions where we explore the concepts and techniques
from the pre-class readings. As a result, both coming to class and
doing the readings are mandatory for this course.
As an active student, I also expect you to ask questions both in class
and during office hours. Later it may be possible to organize some observing nights.
The Home Page for this class is at URL
http://www.oswego.edu/~kanbur/a100/index.html. Check there often for class
reading assignments and other important notices.
Finally, all the "facts" you need to succeed in this course are in
your text. You are encouraged to bring it with you to class as a
guide for the lecture and a framework for any additional notes you may
wish to take.
Assignments and projects will involve the use of high school algebra.
I'm not a science major. Why should I care?
As much as this is a course on Astronomy, this is a course on how
scientists think; how they make measurements, how they solve
problems, and how they come to grips with the Universe. This is
your opportunity to learn some of the techniques of scientific
reasoning. Remember, the study of Astronomy - this course - covers
larger topics -- measured by mass, size, and age -- than any other
class you will ever take.
Even if understanding how to think like a scientist doesn't interest
you, you can not escape science in today's world. Like it or not, you
are now living in a complex, modern society where science plays an
ever-increasing role. It is crucial that you understand how
science and scientists actually work, since you will find yourself
voting on, reading newspaper articles about, and probably using the
products of scientific research every day for the rest of your life.
Perhaps this course will spark a life-long interest in science;
perhaps not. In any event, the thought processes and reasoning skills
you develop this semester should stand you in good stead in situations
far surpassing this single undergraduate 3-credit course.
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