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│THEME
#1
SCIENTIFIC TRUTH:
How do we know what to believe?
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LECTURE 1:
"FROM CLOSED WORLD TO INFINITE UNIVERSE" - course introduction and overview
LECTURE OUTLINE:
1. Course introduction: the Syllabus handout
2. Visualizing geologic time: the time scale of man and the universe
3. A survey of the changing views of the universe, from cave dwellers to the space age
KEY TERMS:
Australopithicus Afarensis, homo sapien, agricultural revolution
FURTHER STUDIES:
2. From grapes to galaxies: the scale of the universe
KEY TERMS:
LECTURE 2:
"WHAT IS TRUTH?" – the philosophical foundations of the scientific view
LECTURE OUTLINE
1. Plato’s Cave
2. The concept of "saving the phenomena"
3. scientific method
4. Kuhn’s paradigm
5. scientific truth
KEY TERMS:
scientific method, Plato’s Cave, Kuhn’s paradigm
FURTHER STUDIES:
KEY TERMS:
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pg. 1
LECTURE 3:
"THE BOWL OF NIGHT" - motions in the sky
LECTURE OUTLINE:
1. Introduction to the celestial sphere: NCP-SCP; CE; EC; RA; DEC
2. 3 basic questions: Why does it get dark? Why does it get cold? Why do stars move?
3. 3 basic observations: Day and night (daily motions in the sky). The seasons (annual motions in the sky). Planet
motions: prograde and retrograde
4. Planetary motions and configurations: elongation angle, conjunction, opposition, maximum elongation,
prograde, retrograde
KEY TERMS:
celestial sphere, sunrise point, sunset point, meridian, NCP, Polaris, celestial equator, ecliptic, solstice, equinox,
zenith, nadir, horizon, fixed stars, planets/wandering stars, magnitude, prograde, retrograde, constellation,
Zodiac, Bayer designation, azimuth, elevation angle, conjunction, inferior and superior conjunction
FURTHER STUDIES:
KEY TERMS:
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LECTURE 4:
"SKYWATCHERS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD" - archeoastronomy: Egypt to Medicine Wheel
LECTURE OUTLINE:
1. Cave relics of astronomical events
2. Babylonia ziggurats; the beginnings of astrology
3. The source of the Nile: Egyptian religion, heliacal risings, and astronomical alignments
4. Stonehenge
5. The Maya
6. Medicine Wheel
KEY TERMS:
Lascaux, Altamira, Babylonia, ziggurat, astrology, Cheops, Giza, Sphinx, Osiris, Nut, Horus, Amun Ra, Thosis,
Thuban, heliacal rising, Akhenaton, Tutankhamen, Abu Simbel, Ramses II, Rosetta Stone, Stonehenge, ,
heelstone, Mayan buildings and calendar, Big Horn Medicine Wheel
FURTHER STUDIES:
KEY TERMS:
Aubrey holes , Sarcen circle, Chichen-Itza, Uxmal, caracol/observatorio, Castillo pyramid, tzolkin, haab, heriography
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pg. 2
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THEME
#2
Moslems
THE OLD VIEW:
Astronomy and Society- Greeks to
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LECTURE 5:
"THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES" - early Greek astronomy: Ionia to Pythagoreans
LECTURE OUTLINE:
1. Thales and the Ionian tradition: the beginnings of science
2. The Ionians: Anaximander, Heraclides, Democritus, Hippocrates, and others
3. The Pythagorean Brotherhood: Pythagoras, Philolaus - magic numbers
4. The harmony of the heavens, music of the spheres, and the 5 Pythagorean solids
KEY TERMS:
Thales, Ionia, Pythagoras, Philolaus, music of the spheres, 5 regular solids, 3-4-5 triangle
FURTHER STUDIES:
1. The Saros cycle; historical eclipses
KEY TERMS:
saros cycle, solar eclipse, lunar eclipse, Democritus, Hippocrates, Anaximander, Heraclides,
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LECTURE 6:
"THE LOGIC OF THE HEAVENS" - the Socratic philosophers
LECTURE OUTLINE:
1. Socrates and the Socratic Method
2. Plato, The Republic, Allegory of the Cave, the concept of the Ideal
3. Eudoxus, and Aristotle: spheres within spheres
4. The 5 Aristotelean elements
5. The Primum Mobile
6. The concept of "saving the phenomena"
KEY TERMS:
Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Eudoxus, Socratic method, metaphysics, epistomology, Allegory of the Cave, primum
mobile, 4 humors of the body, 5 Aristotelean elements, epistomology, metaphysics
FURTHER STUDIES:
KEY TERMS:
pg. 3
Homer, Illiad, Odyssey, Trojan War, hellanic, hellanistic, teleological ladder, final causes, Callippus,
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LECTURE 7:
"WHEELS ON WHEELS" - the Hellenistic astronomers
LECTURE OUTLINE:
1. Aristarchus and Heraclides and the concept of a moving earth
2. Eratosthenes measures the earth
3. Ptolemy and the Ptolemaic System of the universe
4. Tetrabiblios, The Almagest, epicycles, deferents, eccentrics, equants
KEY TERMS:
Aristarchus, Heraclides, Ptolemy, Ptolemaic System, geocentric, epicyle, deferent, equant, eccentric, Almagest,
Tetrabiblios , Eratosthenes, Syene, Alexandria
FURTHER STUDIES:
1. Hipparchus discovers precession
KEY TERMS:
Hipparchus, precession
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LECTURE 8:
"IDEALS AND PERFECTION" - the Greek ideal of a cosmic art and architecture
LECTURE OUTLINE:
1. Brief history of Classical Greece: the City-States and the Trojan War
2. Hellenic and Hellenistic periods
3. The Golden Rectangle
4. Hellenic and Hellenistic architecture
KEY TERMS:
hellenic, hellenistic, city-state, Homer, Iliad, Odyssey, Trojan War, golden rectangle, kouros, post and lintel,
Doric, Ionian, Corinthian, frieze, metope, triglyph, Acropolis, Pallas Athena, Zeus, Apollo, Diana, Poseidon,
Aphrodite, Lapith, Elgin Marbles, Lion Gate, Parthenon, Erechtheum, Nike of Samothrace, Laocoon
FURTHER STUDIES:
1. Hellenic and Hellenistic sculptures
KEY TERMS:
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pg. 4
LECTURE 9:
"EMPEROR, GOD, AND COSMOS" – Romans, Christians, Moslems and Cosmology
LECTURE OUTLINE:
1. The Roman Empire
2. Emperor , Commoner and Cosmos
3. Astrology and Roman religious beliefs
4. The Julian Calendar (lunar and solar calendars)
5. The mystery religions and Christianity
6. Constantine and the Nicaean Council: fixing the date of Easter
7. The Divine Rights of Kings
8. Mohammedanism and astronomy
KEY TERMS:
Aeneid, Virgil, Julius Caesar, Marcus Aurelius, Pax Romana, Diocletian, Constantine, Byzantium, Vitruvius, De
Architectura, astrology, mystery religion, lunar calendar, solar calendar, mystery religion, , Nicaean Council,
St. Augustine, Confessions of St. Augustine, City of God, temporal kingdom, heavenly kingdom, Constantine,
Divine Rights of Kings, Mohammed, Mecca
FURTHER STUDIES:
1. Emperor and commoner: the cosmic structure of Roman society
2. The army and engineering: a Roman triumph
3. Epicureanism and Stoicism: Epicurus, Lucretius, Seneca, Epictetus, Aurelius
4. Brief history of the advent of Christianity: Zealots, Pharisees, and Essenes
5. The Church and the Holy Roman Empire: structure and concept
6. Mohammed and a new religion
7. Samarkand, Baghdad, and Damascus: the Moslem centers of learning
8. The Alphonsine Tables
9. The Gothic Age, the Crusades and Christian Scholars
KEY TERMS:
Romulus and Remus, Aeneus, Punic Wars, Carthage, Hannibal, Hero, Epicureanism, Stoicism, Seneca, Sosigenes, Arch of Constantine,
Arch of Titus, Pantheon, forum, Coliseum, Cannae, planetary conjunction, nova, Edict of Milan, St. Jerome, Vulgate Bible, Byzantine
Empire, Justinian, Ravenna, St. Sophia, Charles Martel, Charlemagne, Aachen Cathedral, HRE (Holy Roman Empire), Divine Rights of
Kings, Mohammed, Islam, Koran, Mecca, Kaaba, Baghdad, Samarkand, Toledo, Alhazen, Avicenna, Averoes, Ulugh-Beg, astrolabe,
algebra, Alphonsine Tables, crusade, Urban II
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THEME
#3
THE NEW VIEW: The Scientific Revolution
from Copernicus to Enlightenment
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LECTURE 10:
"NEW VIEWS OF HEAVEN AND EARTH" - the visions of Luther and Columbus
LECTURE OUTLINE:
1. Scholasticism, Aquinas and the Summa Theologica
pg. 5
2. The fall of Constantinople and the search for a new trade route to the Orient
3. Geography, from Ptolemy to Columbus
4. Navigation tools: compass, crosstaff, astrolabe
5. The voyage of Columbus
6. The naming of America
7. The later explorers: Vasco da Gama, Balboa, Magellan
8. Martin Luther and the breakup of western Christianity
KEY TERMS:
Aquinas, scholasticism, Summa Theologica, Alphonsine Tables, Mehmet II, Tetrabiblios, astrolabe, cross-staff,
latitude, longitude, Columbus, Vespucci, Waldsemüller, Balboa, Vasco da Gama, Magellan, Cape of Good Hope,
Cape Horn, Cortéz, Pizarro, Aztec, Inca, Tenochtitlán, Erasmus, indulgences, Martin Luther, 95 Thesis, Council of
Worms, Reformation, humanism, secularism ,
FURTHER STUDIES:
1. The school of Prince Henry, the Navigator
2. The Reformation and the Counter-Reformation
KEY TERMS:
Prince Henry, Noche Triste, St. Abelard, St. Anselm, Avignon schism, Counter-Reformation, Calvin, predestination
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LECTURE 11:
"THE NEW PERSPECTIVE" - Renaissance Art and Humanism
LECTURE OUTLINE:
1. art from Roman times to ars nova
1. Brunelleschi and the building of Santa Maria del Fiore
2. Michelangelo and the building of St. Peters
3. The art of Michelangelo and Raphael
4. Bernini and the art of the Baroque
KEY TERMS:
Brunelleschi, Il Duomo (Sta. Maria dei Fiore), Ghiberti, Gates of Paradise, Michelangelo, The David, Pietá,
Raphael, School of Athens, Renaissance, Sta. Croce, baroque, Berninni
FURTHER STUDIES:
1. Artists, architects, and their patrons: the High Renaissance in Florence
2. The Papacy and the Medici
KEY TERMS:
Cosimo di Medici, Julius II, Donatello, Sistine Chapel, Uffizi Gallery, Pitti Palace,
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LECTURE 12:
LECTURE OUTLINE:
pg. 6
"THE EARTH MOVES!" - Copernicus and a new model of the universe
1. Roots of the Copernican System
2. The life and times of Nicholas Copernicus
3. The Gregorian Calendar reform
4. The Copernican System: a description- circles and heliocentricism
5. The Copernican System: an explanation- the 3 motions of the heavens
6. The Copernican System: an evaluation- stellar parallax, planetary predictions, eccentrics and epicycles
7. De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium and the Osiander preface (1543)
8. Digges and the concept of an infinite universe
9. A philosophical commentary: saving the phenomema and Occam's Razor
KEY TERMS:
Nicolas Copernicus, Gregorian calendar, heliocentric, parallax, De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium, Osiander,
Digges universe
FURTHER STUDIES:
1. The Commentariolus (1510)
KEY TERMS:
Commentariolus,
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LECTURE 13:
"A MATHEMATICAL UNIVERSE" - Brahe, Kepler, and the mathematics of the cosmos
LECTURE OUTLINE:
1. Tycho Brahe and Uraniborg
2. The comet of 1577
3. The Tychonic System
4. Johannes Kepler and the Rudolphine Tables
5. Kepler's 3 laws of Planetary motion; eccentricity and conic sections
6. A commentary: on the use of mathematics in science
KEY TERMS:
Brahe, Uraniborg, Tychonic System, Rudolphine Tables, conic sections, parabola, hyperbola, circle, ellipse, major
axis, minor axis, semi-major axis, focii, eccentricity, radius vector, Kepler's Laws, Law of Areas, Harmonic Law,
perihelion, aphelion
FURTHER STUDIES:
1. Mysterium Cosmographicum, Astronomia Nova, Harmonice Mundi
2. 1604 nova
KEY TERMS:
Mysterium Cosmographicum, Astronomia Nova, Harmonice Mundi
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LECTURE 14:
LECTURE OUTLINE:
pg. 7
"THE CRIME OF GALILEO" - Galileo, the Pope, and the battle for men's minds
1. The life and times of Galileo Galilei
2. Inclined plane experiment
3. The telescope and Galileo's observations: the craters of the moon; the phases of Venus; the moons of Jupiter;
the spots on the sun
4. Siderius Nuncius, 1610
5. The Medicean Stars and the move to Florence
6. Bellarmine's admonition and the 1616 ban on Copernicus
7. Science and philosophy: Il Saggiatore and the Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina
8. Il Dialogo, 1632
9. The trial and the abjuration, 1633
10. Berthold Brecht and Pope John Paul II: two reappraisals of the trial
11. A commentary: on science and religion- what is truth?
KEY TERMS:
Galileo Galilei, inclined plane, perspicilli, Siderius Nuncius, Medicean Stars, Bellarmine, Inquisition, auto de fé,
Jesuits, Dominicans, 30 Years War, Il Saggiatore, Il Dialogo, Urban VIII, abjuration, Berthold Brecht, Pope John
Paul II
FURTHER STUDIES:
1. The comets of 1619
2. The Inquisition: Jews, Jesuits, and Protestants: war, and art
3. Bruno and the plurality of worlds
KEY TERMS:
30 Years War
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LECTURE 15:
"THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND EARTH”: Newton and the physics of the universe
LECTURE OUTLINE:
1. Newton's life and times: the stuff of genius
2. Optiks: light, spectra, lenses and mirrors
3. Newton's 3 laws of motion
4. The moon-fall problem
5. The law of gravity
6. Planetary masses: Kepler's 3rd law revised
KEY TERMS:
Isaac Newton, Cambridge, refraction, reflecting telescope, prism, spectrum, inertia, velocity, acceleration, force,
mass, Newton's Laws of Motion, moon-fall problem, gravity
FURTHER STUDIES:
KEY TERMS:
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pg. 8
LECTURE 16:
"THE CLOCKWORK UNIVERSE" – fate and free will
LECTURE OUTLINE:
1. Newton and Halley and the comet of 1682
2. The Principia, 1687
3. The concept of universal gravitation
4. The clockwork universe: Newton, Calvin, and predestination
5. A commentary: the marriage of heaven and earth and the blueprint of God
6. The problem of free will
KEY TERMS:
Halley, universal gravitation, Principia, "hypotheses non fingo", clockwork universe, free will, Calvin,
predestination
FURTHER STUDIES:
1. The concept of the paradigm and paradigm shift
2. The Industrial Revolution and rise of the technological society
KEY TERMS:
Lunar Society, BAAS, AAAS, Newcomen engine, Industrial Revolution
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│THEME
#4
MODERN TIMES:
Astronomy from Newton to Hubble
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LECTURE 17:
"SCIENTISTS, ARTISTS, AND REVOLUTIONS" - science, art, and political revolution
LECTURE OUTLINE:
1. Utopian novels: More's Utopia, Bacon's New Atlantis, and Swift's Gulliver's Travels
2. Scientific Societies: Academia dei Lincei, Academie Français, Royal Society, Lunar Society, APS
3. The Enlightenment, and the philosophes
4. Natural law and a rational God: Deism
5. The American and French Revolutions
pg. 9
KEY TERMS:
Descartes, Discourse on the Method, Academia dei Lincei, Academie Français, Royal Society, American
Philosophical Society, Thomas More, Utopia, Francis Bacon, New Atlantis, Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels,
Academy of Lagado, deism, Enlightenment, philosophes, Encyclopaedists, Diderot, natural law, Rights of Man,
Jacques Louis David, Napoleon
FURTHER STUDIES:
1. Millenarianism and the idea of progress
2. Locke, Hobbes, and Rousseau: opposing evaluations of mankind
3. Neoclassicism in art and music
KEY TERMS:
millenarianism, progress, Voltaire, Locke, Hobbes, Rousseau, social contract, "noble savage, Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, Marat,
polyphonic, monophonic, sonata form, Mozart, Beethoven, Ode to Joy
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LECTURE 18:
"THE MEASURE OF THE EARTH" - the voyages of discovery and the longitude problem
LECTURE OUTLINE:
1. Geography from Hipparchus to Vespucci (Hipparchus, Eratosthenes, Columbus, Vespucci)
2. The measurement of latitude: Columbus to Napoleon
3. The problem of longitude: the measurement of time
4. Other methods: eclipses (Columbus), Jupiter's moons (Galileo), lunar distances (Halley)
5. Flamsteed and the Greenwich Observatory: the Astronomers Royal
6. Harrison and the first chronometer
7. The voyages of discovery: Cook and Bligh
KEY TERMS:
Eratosthenes, Ptolemy, Mercator Projection, latitude, longitude, cross-staff, quadrant, astrolabe, sextent, lunar
distances method, Jupiter's moons method, John Harrison, chronometer, Flamsteed, Astronomer Royal,
Greenwich meridian, James Cook, William Bligh
FURTHER STUDIES:
1. The Eclipse Error (?) of Columbus
2. Roemer and the speed of light
3. The transits of Venus and the astronomical unit
4. Colonies, trade, slaves
KEY TERMS:
transit of Venus, Roemer,
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LECTURE 19:
"THE FAMILY OF THE SUN" - the disc. of the solar system from Vulcan to Mars
LECTURE OUTLINE:
1. Bessel proves the earth revolves: parallax (1838)
2. Foucault proves the earth rotates: pendulum (1851)
pg. 10
3. The planet that wasn't there: Vulcan (1867)
4. Lowell and the canals of Mars (1895)
KEY TERMS:
stellar parallax, Bessel, Foucault pendulum, Vulcan, Percival Lowell, canali, Clyde Tombaugh, Pluto, blink
comparator, the “Pale Blue Dot” (Sagan)
FURTHER STUDIES:
1. The sun's family of comets: observations and deductions -Halley to Öort
KEY TERMS:
Halley's comet, Öort Cloud, Dirty Iceberg theory, solar wind, radiation pressure, meteor
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LECTURE 20:
"THE FAMILY OF THE SUN" - the disc. of the solar system from Uranus to Pluto
LECTURE OUTLINE:
1. Piazzi finds a little world: the asteroids (1801)
2. Herschel finds a big world: Uranus (1781)
3. Adams and Leverrier: the mathematical discovery of Neptune (1842)
4. The last planet is found: Tombaugh and Pluto
KEY TERMS:
asteroid, Bode-Titus Law, Piazzi, William Herschel, John Herschel, Carolyn Herschel, Georgium Sidus, Uranus,
pertubation, Adams, Leverrier, Neptune, Clyde Tombaugh, Pluto, blink comparator, the “Pale Blue Dot” (Sagan)
FURTHER STUDIES:
1. The sun's family of comets: observations and deductions -Halley to Öort
KEY TERMS:
Halley's comet, Öort Cloud, Dirty Iceberg theory, solar wind, radiation pressure, meteor
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LECTURE 21:
"THE COSMIC PINWHEEL" - the discovery of our galaxy, from Herschel to Kapteyn
LECTURE OUTLINE:
1. Proper motions and the sun's way
2. Star counting
3. Herschel and Wright: the grindstone universe
4. Charles Messier and the catalog of nuisances
5. Kant and Laplace: the Nebular Hypothesis
pg. 11
6. The Kapteyn Universe and Selected Areas
KEY TERMS:
proper motion, sun's way, nebula, grindstone universe, Messier Catalog, Immanual Kant, Laplace, Nebular
Hypothesis, Kapteyn, Kapteyn Universe, selected areas
FURTHER STUDIES:
7. The Kapteyn universe: selected areas and photography
KEY TERMS:
Kapteyn universe, slected areas
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LECTURE 22:
"THE COSMIC PINWHEEL" - the discovery of our galaxy, from Shapley to Baade
LECTURE OUTLINE:
1. Shapley and Leavitt: the center is found
2. Öort's differential rotation and the number of stars in the Milky Way
3. Baade’s two stellar populations
KEY TERMS:
Harlow Shapley, Henrietta Leavitt, Cepheid variable, RR Lyrae variable, light curve, pulsation theory, PeriodLuminosity Relationship, globular cluster, open cluster, Milky Way, Milky Way Galaxy, Magellanic Clouds, light
year, parsec, Öort's differential rotation, intersteller dust, ISM, Baade, Pop I, Pop II
FURTHER STUDIES:
7. The Kapteyn universe: selected areas and photography
KEY TERMS:
Kapteyn universe, slected areas
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LECTURE 23:
"HUBBLE'S UNIVERSE" – The great telescopes and the discovery of the galaxies
LECTURE OUTLINE:
1. New developments in astronomy: large telescopes, spectroscopy and astrophotography, Galileo to Hale
2. The spiral nebulae
3. The zone of avoidance
4. Slipher finds the red shifts
5. The question of the island universes
pg. 12
KEY TERMS:
Lick Observatory, George Ellery Hale, refracting telescope, reflecting telescope, 100" Hooker reflector, 200" Hale
reflector, spectroscopy, astrophotography, light gathering power, magnification, focal length, objective,
eyepiece, spiral nebulae, Great Nebula in Andromeda, M31, Magellanic Clouds, "island universe", spiral galaxy,
zone of avoidance, Slipher, Doppler shift, red shift, galactic nebulae, extra-galactic nebulae
FURTHER STUDIES:
1. The great Hooker 100" telescope
KEY TERMS:
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LECTURE 24:
" THE GREAT DEBATE AND THE SEARCH FOR THE YEAR 0" – superclusters and H0
LECTURE OUTLINE:
1. The Great Debate: Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis
2. Hubble and M31: the Great Debate resolved
3. The realm of the galaxies: Hubble reaches out
4. The Hubble Relationship discovered
5. The Hubble Relationship interpreted: the expansion of the universe
6. H0 and the age of the universe
7. Radios, space, the computer, and the CCD
KEY TERMS:
Shapley-Curtis debate/the "Great Debate", Edwin Hubble, Hubble Relationship, expansion of universe, Big Bang,
Pulsation Theory, H0, Goddard, Jansky, Penzias and Wilson, Magellan, Venera, Voyager, Viking, and Hubble, CCD
FURTHER STUDIES:
1. The great Hooker 100" telescope
KEY TERMS:
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LECTURE 25:
"A JOURNEY TO OZ" -
stellar evolution and the search for life in the universe
LECTURE OUTLINE:
1. Franhofer and spectroscopy: the chemical character of the stars
pg. 13
2. Pickering's Harem: the Harvard spectral classification of the stars
3. Hertzsprung and Russell: the H-R Diagram
4. Why does the sun shine?: the discovery of nuclear energy
5. Stellar evolution scenarios
6. Other planetary systems: β Pictoris and 51 Pegasi (Marcy, et al)
7. Kepler s/c and exoplanets
8. Project Ozma and SETI
9. The Drake Equation and a question of the survival of life
KEY TERMS:
Franhofer lines, continuous spectrum, emission spectrum, absorption spectrum, wavelength, Angstrom units,
spectral class, apparent magnitude, absolute magnitude, H-R diagram, main sequence, giants, super-giants,
white dwarfs, atom, isotope, nucleus, electron, proton, neutron, fission, fusion, nucleosynthesis, binary star,
mass-luminosity relationship, open cluster globular cluster, planetary, neutron star, black hole, gravitational
contraction, proto-star, ZAMS (zero age main sequence), turn-off point, helium flash, shell burning, 2nd
generation star, galactic plane, galactic halo, Nebular Hypothesis, close encounter theory, Proto-planet
Hypothesis, β Pictoris, 51 Pegasi, Geoff Marcy, Miller experiment, organic chemistry, zone of habtation, Project
Ozma, SETI, Drake equation
FURTHER STUDIES:
1. The Bohr atom and fusion: the road to Hiroshima
2. Star death: planetaries, neutron stars and black holes
3. 2nd generation stars
4. The birth of the Solar System
KEY TERMS:
2nd generation star
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│THEME
#5
LINGERING QUESTIONS:
Life, Religion, God, the Search for Meaning
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LECTURE 26:
"EINSTEIN AND RELATIVITY" – 4 dimensions and the shape of space
1. Olber's Paradox: Why is it dark at night?
2. Einstein's gedankexperimenten: travelling on a beam of light and simultaneity
3. Special Relativity: velocity is a constant (1905)- time, length, mass effects
4. General Relativity: velocity is not constant (1915)- gravity, curved space-time, E=mc2
5. Einstein, Bohr, and Heisenberg: indeterminancy and reality
6. A commentary: the limits of knowledge
KEY TERMS:
Olber's paradox, , gedankenexperiment, special relativity, length contraction, time dilation, twin paradox,
equivalence principle, general relativity, advance of perihelion of Mercury, space-time, curved space, Bohr atom,
pg. 14
Heisenberg, uncertainty principle, indeterminancy
FURTHER STUDIES:
1. The Michelson-Morley experiment and the Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction
2. The effects of Einstein on the arts: Dali, Joyce, Durell, et al
3. Jewish science: Einstein and the Nazis; Entartete Kunst
KEY TERMS:
Michelson-Morley experiment, Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction, Dali, Joyce, Entartete Kunst
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LECTURE 27:
“MODERN MAN AND THE SEARCH FOR MEANING” – universe, multiverse, noösphere
LECTURE OUTLINE:
1. Galaxies, clusters, and super-clusters: the cosmological principle
2. The Big Bang, Steady State, Pulsation and Inflation
3. The critical density (ρc)
4. mini-universes and multi-universes, noösphere
5. The fate of the universe: Big-bang to Big-crunch or heat death
6. Closing thoughts: Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot, Brashear's tombstone, Elsen's chains, and Bradbury's soft rains
KEY TERMS:
cosmology, universe, galaxy, local group, super-cluster, mega-parsec, cosmological principle, isotropic,
anisotropic, quasar, expansion on universe, Hubble Law, Hubble constant, Big-bang Hypothesis, Pulsation Theory,
Steady-State Theory, space-time curvature, open universe, closed universe, critical density(ρc), mini-universes,
multi-universes, heat death
pg. 15