Welcome to the online version of Physics 140 - Introduction to Astronomy. As time progresses, the notes may be altered (as new information becomes available) so developing webpages will be an ongoing project. Of course I will strive to post pages as rapidly as possible, but please be patient.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS.
TEXT: ASTRONOMY TODAY, CHAISSON AND McMILLAN, 5TH EDITION.
The course assumes no prior science background, though if you've had previous courses, that's certainly O.K. too! Being a survey course, math will be held to a minimum, but will be used when necessary. The CD that accompanies the book won't be used in the course per se, however I encourage you to make use of it. The animations are great!
ASSIGNMENTS:
At the beginning of each chapter, you will be assigned 10 questions taken from the Review And Discussion section and 2 math questions from the Problems to be completed as soon as possible. Each homework assignment will be worth 20 points and we'll have 12 assignments for a maximum of 240 points.
TESTS:
There will be 3 exams, each worth 100 points. Each exam will consist of 33 multiple choice questions and will cover about 4 chapters, corresponding to each PART (see Brief Contents) of the book. There may be exceptions; for example, exam 2 covers the Solar System (planets) and the information is found in various chapters. The final exam is NOT comprehensive.
GRADES:
The homework assignments count for 60% of your grade while the exams make up the remaining 40%. The final grade is then determined by the formula: grade = 60 x (sum of homeworks)/120 + 40 x (sum of tests)/300. From there, the letter grade is determined by
Tentative Schedule:
Chapter 1 - Charting the Heavens
Chapter 2 - The Copernican Revolution
Chapter 3 - Radiation
Chapter 4 - Spectroscopy
EXAM 1
Chapter 6 - The Solar System
Chapter 7 - Earth
The Inner Planets - material taken from Chapters 8,9,10
The Outer Planets - material taken from Chapters 11,12,13
EXAM 2
Chapter 17 - Measuring the Stars
Chapter 19 - Star Formation
Chapter 20 - Stellar Evolution
Chapter 21 - Stellar Explosions
EXAM 3