The Course Syllabus and Plan

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The Course Syllabusand Plan
You can get directly here by using the
URL http//astro.berkeley.edu/ basri/astro10/
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How to enroll in this course

• Go to bb if from the campus network
  berkeley.edu, otherwise blackboard.berkeley.edu
• Click Create Account. You will have to choose a
  username.
• Fill out all red-starred information slots, then
  submit at the bottom
• Click Courses tab in upper left Letters
  Science Astronomy
• Click Astro 10 (astro10-fa03)
• Choose Enroll in this Course and follow
  directions
• You should end up in the Astro 10 Announcement
  screen
• You will have to use the username password you
  chose above to log in this will be your username
  for the course

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The CourseInfo website by Blackboard
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The Website Discussion Forum
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Grading and Exams
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Further Comments

• There will be NO sections this week
• You are not in the course unless a GSI has
  enrolled you on the course website into a section
  (Telebears aside)
• For that to happen, you MUST get an account in
  Blackboard
• Sections next week are all in the basement of
  Campbell Hall
• This is not a mathematical course, but there is
  simple algebra in it (like LR2 T4 ) a bit.
  Critical thinking IS required.
• The main source of material is the book, but
  lectures tell you what is important (and fill out
  detail the book is brief)
• Falling behind in reading or homework is fatal
  this material CANNOT be crammed at the end
• If you arent used to critical thinking, or dont
  need the grade, we strongly encourage you to take
  the course P/NP

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Science vs Non-science (nonsense?)

• What is science?
• Empirical must always be based on observations
• Predictive should be able to predict new
  observations
• Reductionist(?) tries to discover underlying
  laws
• Why dont astronomers believe in astrology?
• Precession has moved the Sun signs
• The constellations are not real entities
• Local forces are much greater than forces due to
  stars or planets
• Astrology is not really predictive (rigorous
  statistical analyses shows this)
• of course, just because it is not science
  doesnt mean it should be banned, just that it
  shouldnt pretend to be science

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Powers of Ten
We jump by a factor of 100 in each frame. This
also shows the context of the Earth in the
Universe.
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The Solar System
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Our place in the Universe
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Timeline graphic
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The Universe in a Day
  Lets look at the entire history of the
Universe as though it took place in a single day.
The present is at the stroke of midnight at the
end of that day. Since it is about 12 billion
years old, each hour will be worth 0.5 billion
years. A million years takes only a little over 7
seconds.   The Big Bang (as an opaque fireball)
and the formation of H and He all take place in
the first nanosecond. The Universe becomes
transparent in about 2 seconds. The first stars
and galaxies appear after about 2am, and our
Galaxy forms at perhaps 4am. Generations of stars
are born and die.  
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The Universe in a Day
  The Solar System does not form until 3pm. The
first life (bacterial) appears on the Earth by
4pm. Our atmosphere begins to have free oxygen at
7 or 8 pm, and this promotes the development of
creatures which can move more aggressively and
eat each other. Life does not begin to take on
complex forms (multicellular) until 1045pm. It
moves onto land at 1110. The dinosaurs appear at
about 1140, and become extinct at 1152.
Pre-human primates appear at around 14 seconds
before midnight, and all of recorded history
occurs in the last 70 milliseconds.   Looking to
the future, we can expect the Universe of stars
to go on for another at least a millennium (using
the same time compression factor). After that,
there are other ages of the Universe (not
dominated by stars), which grow colder and more
bizarre, and take place on astronomical
timescales (even after this compression of
timescale).