Instructor: Daniel V. Schroeder, Physics Department, Weber State University

Time: Fall semester, 1999, 8:30 a.m.

This course is part of the WSU Honors Program.

Description

This course will address the grandest question of physical science: How big, and how old, is the universe? We will take a historical perspective, looking at how scientists have tried to answer this question from ancient times to the twentieth century. Our modern answers come mainly from the disciplines of astronomy and geology. Underlying these disciplines, however, are the physical laws governing motion, gravity, energy, light, and radioactivity. By the end of the course we will synthesize all of this knowledge into a modern picture of our place in the universe.

Course Outline

1. The Copernican Revolution (5 weeks)
   • Naked-eye astronomy
   • Ancient cosmological models
   • Copernicus' innovation
   • Newtonian physics

2. The Age of the Earth (4 weeks)
   • Geology of the Basin and Range
   • Hutton's theory of the earth
   • Young-earth theories
   • Energy in the earth and the sun
   • Radioactive dating
   • The age of the solar system

3. The Large-Scale Structure of the Universe (6 weeks)
   • The physics of light
   • Properties of stars
   • The cosmological distance ladder
   • The expansion of the universe
   • The history of the universe

Reading Materials

• The Copernican Revolution by Thomas Kuhn (Harvard, 1957)
• Basin and Range by John McPhee (Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1981)
• The First Three Minutes by Steven Weinberg (Basic Books, 1993)
• We will also read a number of articles and excerpts from such authors as Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, Richard Feynman, Stephen Jay Gould, Ernest Rutherford, and Timothy Ferris.

Class Format

Class sessions will be devoted mainly to discussion of the reading materials and related ideas, with occasional lecture presentations by the instructor or guest lecturers. There will be about 6-8 written assignments and papers, from one to six pages in length. We will have short quizzes in class roughly once a week, but no full-length exams.

Related information (with no implied endorsement!):

• Article on the Flat Earth Society
• The Talk.Origins Archive has an enormous amount of information on the creation/evolution controversy.

For more information, please contact the instructor, either by e-mail (dschroeder@cc.weber.edu) or phone (801-626-6048).

Last modified on September 6, 1999.