| ASTRONOMY 170: INTRODUCTION TO COSMOLOGY |
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Course Description: Cosmology is the study of the origin, structure and evolution of the Universe itself: the totality of phenomena of space and time. It is the oldest science, and addresses the biggest questions: How old is the Universe? Did time have a beginning? What is the Universe made of? What are Dark Matter and Dark Energy? Is the Universe finite, and if so, what do we find at the edge? Are we alone in the Universe? In this course we journey from the Ancient Greek world views of Ptolemy and Aristotle to the hot Big-Bang model of modern-day cosmology. Along the way we learn how stars shine, how black holes form, how galaxies take on their shapes, and how Copernicus, Galilei, Newton, Einstein, Hubble and others have transformed our geocentric views to one in which we inhabit just a small planet immersed in an infinite, expanding space-time that is 13.73 billion years old and consists of dark matter and dark energy, and in which galaxies are the product of quantum fluctuations. Course Evaluations: Click here for exerts from course evaluations from students.
Syllabus: Click here for download
Lectures: This course will cover most chapters in the textbook by Duncan & Tyler in detail, but will also include significant amounts of supplementary material not contained in the text. All lectures will be posted on the class website (in PDF) for your convenience, but you are strongly encouraged to attend the lectures as this provides the best chance (by far) to learn and comprehend the material covered. Discussion Sections: We will be having discussion sections on Monday mornings. During these sections we will provide guidance towards solving the problem sets, and answer any questions the students may have regarding the material covered in class or in the textbook. Although the discussion sections are not mandatory, students are strongly encouraged to attend the discussion sections, especially if they encounter problems with the problem sets and/or have difficulty understanding the material covered in class or in the textbook. Discussion sections will start after the shopping period (on Monday Jan 24).
Exams: Exams, both midterm and final, are aimed at ensuring that you follow along in the text and engage in lecture. They will test reading comprehension, qualitative understanding of the key concepts, and include some basic math problems. No makeup exams will be given. Only in exceptional cases (conflict with other exam, death in the family, etc.) will I consider making arrangements for you to take the exam at some other time. Downloads: Lecture notes, problem sets, class policies, help pages, etc can all be downloaded by registered students via Classes*v2. Note that the lecture notes will only be made available after each lecture.
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