Read: Harmony and Complexity (Chap. 3)and Earth at the Center of the World (Chap. 4). This week we will be discussing Aristotle's On the Heavens during class.
Topics include: identifying stars and planets in the night sky, the historical development of astronomy, celestial coordinate systems, astronomical instruments, the Copernican revolution, Kepler’s laws of planetary motion, Newton's law of gravitation, stellar parallax, galactic redshifts, Hubble’s law, and modern cosmology.
This website will lead you through Volume 1 of A Student's Guide using short videos and homework assignments. Each video has a code (in parentheses) that indicates the book volume, chapter, and lecture number. Click the link for Week 1 to get started!
PHY 101: Introduction to Astronomy meets on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9:00 - 9:50 am.