Astronomy 4 - Spring 2005

Department of Physics and Astronomy	Dartmouth College
Astronomy 4 -- Spring 2005

Ptolemy	Copernicus	Brahe	Kepler	Galileo	Newton	Einstein

Contact Information Instructors Teaching Assistants Announcements	Course Information Course Description Lecture Schedule Reading Schedule Term Projects	Course Documents Lecture Notes Exams

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Instructors | Top

Marcelo Gleiser	Send email to: Marcelo.Gleiser@Dartmouth.EDU

	Office:	116 Wilder
	Office phone:	6-1489
	Office hours:	Friday 9:00 - 11:00 AM or by appointment.

Richard Kremer	Send email to: Richard.L.Kremer@Dartmouth.EDU

	Office:	405 Carson
	Office phone:	6-2228
	Office hours:	Wednesday 2:00 - 4:00 PM or by appointment

Teaching Assistants | Top

Michael Brown-Hayes	Send email to: Michael.A.Brown-Hayes@Dartmouth.edu

	Office:	341 Wilder
	Office phone:	6-0625
	Office hours:	Tueday & Wednesday 4:00 - 5:00 pm

Matthew Lewis	Send email to: Matthew.S.Lewis@Dartmouth.edu

	Office:	302 Wilder
	Office phone:	6-3535
	Office hours:	Monday & Thursday 4:00 - 5:00 pm

Course Information | Top

Purpose:	An historical examination of Western scientific views of cosmology, from ancient to modern times.
Textbooks:	The Dancing Universe UPNE, 2005 by Marcelo Gleiser Astronomy Today 5th edition Pearson - Prentice Hall, 2005 by Eric Chaisson and Steve McMillan The Prophet and the Astronomer W.W. Norton, 2003 (paperback) by Marcelo Gleiser (Recommended) All books are available at Wheelock Books; a few copies are on reserve at Kresge Library. Additional readings will be distributed in class.
Class Periods:	Lectures: MWF, 104 Wilder, 12:30 - 1:35. X-hour: Tu 1:00 - 1:50.
Class Room:	104 Wilder
Requirements:	Students are expected to attend class lectures, study the assigned portions of the textbooks, watch the films and play(s), complete two term projects and take the examinations.
Term Projects:	See attached descriptions. The projects, together, will count for 40% of the term grade. Observing project: 15%. Term project: 25%.
Examinations:	A midterm examination, written in class on Wednesday, 27 April, will cover all the materials to that date (lectures, readings, films), and count for 25% of term grade. The final examination will cover all materials for the entire course and will count for 35% of your grade.
Honor Principle:	Although we encourage you to discuss your term projects with other members of the class and to study for exams together, all written work must be your own. Essays for term projects should be properly footnoted, following bibliographical procedures described in Dartmouth's pamphlet Sources: Their Use and Acknowledgment (www.dartmouth.edu/~sources).
Disabilities:	Any student with a documented disability needing academic adjustments or accommodations is requested to speak to a member of the course staff by the end of the second week of the term. All discussions will remain confidential, although the Student Disabilities Coordinator may be consulted to verify the documentation of the disability.

Lecture Schedule | Top

Date	Topic	Notes
Wed., March 30:	Introduction
Fri., April 1:	What is the Origin of all Things? Myths of Creation	Download
Mon., April 4:	Searching for simplicity: The �cosmos�, c. 500 B.C.E.	Dowbload
Tue., April 5:	Film: "The Sun Dagger"
Wed., April 6:	Looking at the skies as an ancient Egyptian or Babylonian	Download
Fri., April 8:	Plato and Aristotle: Defining the Rules for Western Cosmology	Download
Mon., April 11:	Ptolemy and the Puzzle of the Planets	Download
Wed., April 13:	Islamic Innovators and Copernicus	Download
Fri., April 15:	Tycho and Kepler: The Astronomical Prince and the Visionary	Download
Mon., April 18:	Galileo, the Telescope and the Church	Download
Wed., April 20:	Newton, the Laws of Motion and Universal Gravitation	Download
Fri., April 22:	Newton's "System of the World"	Download
Mon., April 25:	Natural History of the Heavens in the Eighteenth Century	Download
Tue., April 26:	Review and Discussion (7-9 p.m., 104 Wilder)
Wed., April 27:	Midterm Exam
Fri., April 29	The Birth of Astrophysics	Download
Mon., May 2:	Riding on a Light Beam: Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity	Download
Tue., May 3:	Film: "Einstein Revealed, Part I" NOVA, 1996
Wed., May 4:	Gravity explained: Einstein's general theory of relativity	Download
Fri., May 6:	The Life Histories of Stars I: From Birth to Violent Lives	Download
Mon., May 9:	The Life Histories of Stars II: Death and Beyond	Download
Wed., May 11:	Models of the Universe I: Cosmology on the Desktop	Download
Fri., May 13:	Hubble, Galaxies and the Expanding Universe	Download
Mon., May 16:	Models of the Universe II: Steady-state vs. Big-Bang	Download
Wed., May 18:	The Innerspace/Outerspace Connection	Download Supplemental Material Magnify after opening
Fri., May 20:	Are we alone? Dreams of Life Elsewhere	Download
Mon., May 23:	The Inflationary Universe
Tue., May 24:	Film: "Contact," dir. Robert Zemeckis, 1997 (7-9:30 p.m., 104 Wilder)
Wed., May 25:	Why now? The Accelerating Universe and its Challenges	Download
Fri., May 27:	God Only Knows: Debates About Science, Religion and Cosmology	Download
Mon., May 30:	Memorial Day (no class)
Wed., June 1:	Course Summary and Review
Thu., June 2:	Review and Discussion (7:00 - 9:00 pm, 104 Wilder)
Sun., June 5:	Final Examination (3:00 - 6:00 pm)

Reading Assignments | Top

	Date	Reading

	Mar 30 - Apr 1	Gleiser, Ch. 1
	Apr 4 - 8	Gleiser, Ch. 2; Chaisson, Ch. 2 [pp. 34-39]; P & A, Ch. 3 [pp. 51-56]
	Apr 11 - 15	Gleiser, Ch. 3; Chaisson, Ch. 2 [pp. 39-48]; Handout
	Apr 18 - 22	Gleiser, Ch. 4 and Ch. 5; Chaisson, Ch. 2 [pp. 48-57]; P & A, Ch. 3 [pp. 64-68
	Apr 25 - 29	Gleiser, Ch. 6 [pp. 149-160] and Ch. 8 [pp. 212-228]; Chaisson Ch. 4 [pp. 82-96]; P & A, Ch. 3 [pp. 69-79]
	May 2 - 6	Gleiser, Ch. 7, and Chap. 9 [pp. 243-260]; Chaisson, Ch. 22 [pp. 581-586] and Ch. 16 [pp. 404-417], Ch. 17 [pp. 446-455]; P & A, Ch. 5
	May 9 - 13	Gleiser, Ch. 9 [pp. 260-279], Ch. 10 [pp. 280-300]; Chaisson, Ch. 20 [pp. 514-533], Ch. 21 [pp. 542-563] and Ch. 22 [pp. 566-572; 580-581; 586-597]; P & A, Ch. 6 and Ch. 7
	May 16 - 20	Gleiser, Ch. 10 [pp. 301-309]; Chaisson, Ch. 26, Ch. 27 [pp. 716-729] and Ch. 28.
	May 23 - 27	Gleiser, Epilogue; Chaisson, Ch. 27 [pp. 726-735]; P & A, Ch. 8

Exam Materials | Top

Sample Exam 1

Term Projects | Top

Each student will complete an Observing Project by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, 4 May, and one of the various Term Projects by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, 25 May. Each project (except for Nos. 5 and 6) will require some hands-on experience as you perform important astronomical activities of earlier centuries. You will also read materials about the history of the instrument or observations you will be making, and will write a short paper summarizing your work. Project descriptions, available on the course web site, will provide additional details. You should work closely with the Teaching Assistants on your projects.

Observing Project: Determine the periods of Jupiter's four largest satellites

Using a telescope, available on loan from the Physics Department, you will work in pairs to observe the positions of Jupiter's largest moons (Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto) at differing times over the month of April. By collecting data over a series of dates, you can determine the orbital periods of the moons. You will also find the periods using the SkykChart III software that accompanies Chaisson's textbook.

Jupiters' Moons Instructions

Project 1: Measuring Solar Altitude and Determining the Geographical Latitude of Hanover

You will construct the earliest astronomical instrument, the gnomen or vertical shadow stick, and use this device to measure the changing midday solar altitude over the course of the term. From these data you will be able to compute the geographical latitude of your observational site.

Project Instructions

Project 2: Constructing and Using an Astrolabe

You will construct part of an astrolabe, a sophisticated astronomical instrument and "pocket calculator" invented by the Greeks, improved by the Arabs, and used continually until the seventeenth century. We have translated a set of instructions for making this instrument from an astronomical textbook published in 1535. In addition to making the device, you will write an "owner's manual" to describe how the astrolabe can be used to tell time, day or night.

Project Instructions

Project 3: Making and Using a Galilean Telescope

Using lenses we will provide, you will construct a telescope similar to that used by Galileo in 1610 as he made his first astronomical observations with such a device. With your telescope, you will observe the Moon, the phases of Venus, the composition of the Milky Way (maybe also Andromeda), the moons of Jupiter and the stars in the Pleiades, and will compare your results with those published by Galileo.

Project Instructions

Project 4: Measure the (Hubble) Age of the Universe

Using the Palomar Sky Survey, a series of deep photographs of the entire sky, you will measure the apparent size of galaxies in distant clusters of galaxies. By comparing this size with the apparent size of a galaxy a known distance form us (M31), you can estimate the distances to the clusters--if you make certain assumptions. By plotting the distance of galaxies against their velocity of recession (the "red shift" in their spectra), you can determine the Hubble constant. From this value, as Hubble showed around 1930, you can determine the age of the Universe (that is, the time since the Big Bang).

Project Instructions

Project 5: Write a Standard Paper on Any Topic Related to the Course

You will submit a one-page proposal and preliminary bibliography by Friday, 15 April, to be approved and signed by one of the professors. Your final paper should normally be no longer than ten pages (about 2500 words), excluding footnotes [Do not use any font smaller than 11pt!]. You must follow standard procedures of citing sources, as described in the most recent edition of Sources: Their Use and Acknowledgement (www.dartmouth.edu/~sources). Your essay should frame an original question, formulate and defend a thesis with a careful use of evidence, and show a knowledge of the existing secondary literature on your topic.

Project 6: Produce Brecht's Galileo (Available only to 6 students)

You will perform this classic interpretation of Galileo's confrontation with the Inquisition for the class (and guests!) on Thursday evening, 12 May. As a group, you will organize yourselves to select one of Brecht's versions, prepare the script (some abridgment may be in order), cast and rehearse actors/readers, arrange props and program notes, and perform the play (past performances have been great fun). Professor Gleiser will work with this group as necessary. If more than 6 students show an interest, we will suggest a second play to be performed (on Tycho and Kepler).