What are the origins of the Geocentric and Heliocentric models
put foward to explain planetary motion? This lecture begins a new
unit that will chart the rise of our modern view of the solar system by
reviewing the highly influential work by Greek and Roman philosophers
who elaborated the first geocentric and heliocentric models of
the Solar System. We dis ... Show More
Oct 2007
Lecture 14b: Copernicus from Au2006
Because my voice recorder malfunctioned 15 minutes into my Lecture on Copernicus on 2007 October 9, I've added this recording of my Copernicus lecture from Autumn Quarter 2006. It is the same basic material, but since I generally improvise on a basic outline, there will be some d ... Show More
42m 1s
Mar 2006
Lecture 44: Life, the Universe, and Everything (Life Part II)
How can we search for extraterrestrial intelligence, and what are we looking for? This second part of a 2-part lecture picks up where we left off yesterday by examining SETI, the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence, and reviews what we might look for and how. We will use thi ... Show More
45m 56s
Sep 2006
Lecture 2: Astronomical Numbers
Before we can begin our exploration of astronomy, we need to develop a
common language for notating large numbers, and introduce the basic
units of length, mass, and time that we will use throughout the quarter.
We will first re-introduce the basic metric system, explaining how t ... Show More
43m 29s