Cosmology 20B Spring 2008 Webpage

Instructor: Prof. David Kirkby
Office Hour: Tuesday: 2:00 - 3:00pm, FRH 3182

(Note: Prof. Kirkby's office hour is for administrative matters and general dicussion of the course material.
Specific questions about homework assignments should be raised at your weekly discussion section.
)

Teaching Assistant: Joe Wolf
Office Hours:
Sunday: 9:30 - 10:30pm, online via EEE's chat feature
Monday: 1:00 - 2:00pm, FRH 2153

The five secrets to earning an A in this course
Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself. - Chinese Proverb
1. Go to lecture, takes notes, and attend your discussion section.
2. READ THE BOOK, and do your homework.
3. Use the online demos.

A single conversation across a table with a wise man is worth a month's study of books. - Chinese proverb
4. Go to office hours.

One who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; one who does not ask a question remains a fool forever. - Chinese proverb
5. Ask questions!
Supplemental Material:

Week 1: Cosmic Voyage (Full) (Abridged)

Week 2: Ancient Astronomy Part 1 Part 2

Week 3: Ether, Special Relativity, General Relativity

Week 5: The Elegant Universe

Week 6a: History Channel's The Universe: "Milky Way" Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5
Week 6b: Carl Sagan: A Thousand Years of Darkness

Week 7: Carl Sagan: Flatland

Week 8: BBC Horizon: "Most Of Our Universe Is Missing" Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

Week 9: Reading the Blueprints of Creation From Slowdown to Speedup The Cosmic Symphony

Week 10: Put a Little Science in Your Life (NY Times) NYT Website RTF Format Text Only

Week 11: Carl Sagan: Pale Blue Dot

Astronomy Picture of the Day


Extra Credit Questions:

Week 2: Calculate, to within an order of magnitude, the time it would take for a civilization to colonize almost every habitable planet within the Milky Way, given that they could produce a spaceship that could travel at 1/10th the speed of light.

Week 3: Make a spectrometer from a CD. Take a picture of your apparatus, a discrete spectrum, and a continuous spectrum.

Week 6: After watching the History Channel's The Universe: "Milky Way", write a 1-2 page analysis addressing what questions you would like to see answered, and what areas of open research seem the most interesting. Please use 12 point font with 1 inch margins.

Week 9: After reading one of the three above 2004 Scientific American articles, write a 100-150 word summary. List three follow up questions.


E pur si muove.