Assignments
• NEW: Watch this video on velocity curves for rotating objects (solar systems and galaxies) to understand part of the evidence for dark matter.
• NEW: Watch this video on star formation and life cyles:
• NEW: What is fusion, the process by which elements are formed in stars? Watch this video:
• Watch Crash Course Big History #2, Exploring the Universe
• Take a brief course in chemistry by watching the first video at How Scientists Know: Atoms. You might also be interested in the other videos there.
• To begin building an understanding of what light is, look at the first figure and read the opening section of How Scientists Know: Electromagnetic Fields and Waves.
• Before each class, check the appropriate episode page(s) for Assignments, things To Think About, More Resources, and the day before class, check Your Questions. To be sure that your own question or comment is considered for the upcoming Monday class, submit it at least 24 hours beforehand (Sunday morning).
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To Think About
• In the aftermath of the Big Bang, the universe has produced greater and greater complexity. Does it seem paradoxical that complexity can emerge from the simplicity and uniformity of the earliest universe?
• Why do you think gravity condenses the ordinary matter (not dark matter) in galaxies and star-forming clouds into disks, instead of globes? Why does dark matter condense into globes?
• Why is chemistry important to understanding the early universe?
• The human condition is perhaps nowhere better illustrated than in the relationship of scientist, observation, and law. What does this mean? Literature, art, and music are often said to explore the human condition. What does science teach us about this subject?
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More Resources
• Cosmicomics, by Italo Calvino
Want to read more like "All At a Point?" Click HERE. You can save the book as a .pdf file.
• Brief, Incisive Biographical Information about Scientists and their Contributions
Here's a resource I just discovered this morning (2021-03-24): Scientist of the Day. Try it out. For example, for a scientist very pertinent to our recent discussions, search the site for Vera Rubin. This daily series has been running since October 19, 2014, about 1500 entries, so you can probably find just about any scientist you would like to know a little bit about. Emphasis is on their best-known contributions to science.
• What is Energy?
Read what energy means in science, at Wikipedia: Energy. Also see how scientists express quantities of energy, at Wikipedia: Energy units.
• Electromagnetic Radiation (Wikipedia)
The opening section of this entry will help you start building an understanding of light and other forms of electromagnetic radiation (EMR). EMR provides us almost all the data for trying to understand the cosmos.
• The Hubble Horizon
We can see light from objects that are traveling away from us faster than the speed of light. (What? What?!)
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Your Questions
On every page of this web site is a form where you can contribute questions, comments, or suggestions. Any contributions that pertain to this page will appear HERE. Shortly before each class, check Your Questions for the episode(s) assigned.
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Too Fast To Read !!!!
CCBH's theme song plays over four screens of factoids and wisecracks that flit by much to rapidly to read. Here they are. Click to enlarge them.
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