This is a descriptive survey course of elementary astronomy with laboratory intended for both non-science and science majors. Topics covered include a description of the celestial sphere, a tour of the Solar System, techniques for measuring and classifying stars, stellar evolution, white dwarfs, black holes, neutron stars, galaxies, and Big Band cosmology. A descriptive overview of the entire field of physics with laboratory, including the concepts of scalars and vectors, Newton's laws, momentum and energy conservation, rotational motion, fluids, heat and thermodynamics, sound, electricity and magnetism, optics, atomic and nuclear physics, relativity, and elementary particle physics. This course is intended to provide the non-scientist with substantial insight into the physical behavior of matter and energy.
Extensive demonstrations accompany the presentation of material to illustrate key concepts.
This course does not satisfy any pre-professional physics requirements. PH 107 Freshman Physics Seminar 1 cr Intended for physics majors in their first year or others interested in physics as a possible major. This course is not intended to satisfy the science requirements within the College of Arts and Sciences. This course covers electrostatics, DC circuits, RC circuits, magnetic fields and forces, Faraday's Law, AC circuits, geometrical optics, interference and diffraction of light, the special theory of relativity, quantum physics, and atomic and nuclear physics. Newton's laws of motion and their applications, work and energy, momentum and collisions, circular motion, rotational motion, properties of materials, simple harmonic motion, wave motion and topics in thermodynamics.