ASTRONOMY 001 SPRING 2005 RM 121 LABORATORY CLASSROOM BUILDING SECTION 001 MEETS MWF 10:00 AM - 10:50 AMSECTION 002 MEETS MWF 12:00 - 12:50 PMINSTRUCTOR DR. PETER W. DEUTSCHASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF PHYSICSOFFICE 16 MBB PHONE: 724-773-3893E-mail: [email protected] http://www.personal.psu.edu/pd2OFFICE HOURS MWF 3:00 TO 3:50PM;TH 10:00 to 10:50 AM; AND FRI 2:00 to 2:50 PM These office hours are not my only availability outside of class. I am often on campus all day until 5 PM, and I am often available while setting up or taking down class in room 121 Laboratory Classroom Building at 9 am or next to my office in room 14 Michael Baker setting things up. I can often be found at the Bistro working at a table. However Tuesday is a research, work, and grading day. Occasionally I will be off campus later in the afternoon to attend a seminar. A few times this may interfere with the office hours. During the 11 AM or 12 Noon hour I am often in one of the LCB computer rooms such as 102 LCB across the hall from rm 121.REQUIRED TEXT: In Quest of the Universe 4rd Edition by Karl F. Kuhn and Theo Koupelis (Jones and Bartlett Publishers 2004)This addition has many updates from the previous edition. Based on new knowledge or perceptionthere is often more than one change per page throughout the entire text. In fact some sections havebeen entirely revamped or added as new.There is also an Activities Manual and Kit excerpted from Shawl’s et. al.’s Discovering Astronomy on sale in the Campus Bookstore. (Please read each activity carefully in turn before we take it up in class. The instructions are very explicit and detailed.) The course is a survey of astronomy. It is a three-credit course satisfying a general education requirement in physical sciences, meeting three times a week for fifteen weeks.Special Notes: Attendance requirements and related matters: (I) Anybody missing five or more classes will be subject to failing the course. I cannot help you if you don’t come to class. I cannot help you if you are not here.(II) Those who have attended regularly – perfectly or nearly perfectly – will have 12.5 points added to their highest test scores.(III) Attendance will be taken regularly. Please respect the means by which it is taken. (IV) Approximately 10% to 15% of the grade will be for other activities. These include cooperativeactivities and a subjective evaluation which includes class participation, and any other class interactions.(V) Be courteous to my ‘guest’ lecturers. I frequently bring ‘visitors’ to my class via VCR/DVD or other means. I do so not just to fill up times but because they – often in combination with special media resources – have something important to share. (VI) There have been a few times when I have had take special measures to protect the integrity of the classroom. I do this to protect the interests -- the welfare --of the class as a whole. If I call on you to do something specific to limit disruption to the class as a whole or to stop doing something disruptive, please do as I say. I will make a special effort at another time appropriate adjusting with you individually about any materials that might be missed. This disruption usually involves talking, but occasionally it can take other forms such as loud and prolonged coughing which may also signal a contagion or other visible forms of distress that may impact the class as a whole.I don’t do this often. Nor do I do it casually. But I will do it if I judge it important to do so. (VII) Finally I reserve the right to update this syllabus during the semester as is necessary and appropriate. Again, I don’t do this often or casually but I will do it if it is important to do so. 1Course Content: The course provides an overview of our present understanding of the physical Universe. Using our unaided eyes on a clear night we survey the sky learning about the remarkable, distant objects and systems as they have been revealed by large telescopes and other, related advanced instruments at optical and other wavelengths. An important issue is how astronomers have advanced fromobserving distant, faint objects to a deep and detailed understanding of their physical workings and evolution or development. How was the structure of the solar system explained over the past few centuries? What are stars made? Why or how do they shine? What is the Milky Way made of and how is it related to certain dim, fuzzy patches of sky that we now call galaxies? What are the galaxies made of? How far are the stars and galaxies? Have they been around forever? Will they last forever? If not, when did they form, and when will they die? How might they die? Why does the Universe appear to be expanding? How do the Earth and its life fit into the Universe? This is certainly a long list of important questions, and we don’t expect to answer all of them in detail at the end of the course. However we hope you’ll begin to appreciate the fact that questions like these can actually be raised and addressed now to varying degrees -- and with some success! In fact acquainting you with that process, selling you on the scientific method is the main thing I want to accomplish in this course. I want you to appreciate that science is a way of correcting the many mistakes we do in fact make. Scientific model building has an effective clarifying impact on our understanding.But to do this we must survey our knowledge of physical laws picking out just the right ingredients to give us the right insights. We’ll look at gravity, the laws of motion, light, and even the physics of the very small -- atomic and nuclear physics -- to get some feeling for how these questions are being answered. Allthis will actually be done with very little mathematics. However it is important to work in this course. There is a great deal to learn. There is no pill you can take to learn the material instantly. If you find one, let me know about it! But I don’t think it’s an easy find.Moreover while I can help and I will work hard on this class, what I can get you to do is more important than what I do. Put in active learning time in class. Put in two hours of astronomy study for each hour of class.Now the following is important. Don’t be surprised if what you learn here sometimes contradicts what you have taken or accepted as true before. Many people have preconceptions about astronomy which are in fact false. For example: - The North Star is not the brightest star in the