Astronomy 161 - Introduction to Solar System Astronomy - Autumn 2007

By Richard PoggeScience Education Courses Natural Sciences Astronomy

Astronomy 161 - Introduction to Solar System Astronomy - Autumn 2007 episodes

October 12, 2007 Lecture 17: On the Shoulders of Giants: Isaac Newton and the Laws of Motion
Copernicus, Kepler, Tycho, and Galileo together gave us a new way of
looking at the motions in the heavens, but they could not explain why
the planets move they way the do. It was to be the work of Isaac Newton
who was to sweep away the last vestiges of the Aristotelian view of the
world and replace it with with a new, vastly more powerful predictive
synthesis, in which all motions, in the heavens and on the Earth, obeyed
three simple, mathematical laws of motion. This lecture introduces
Newton's Three Laws of Motion and their consequences. Recorded 2007 Oct
12 in 1000 McPherson Lab on the Columbus campus of The Ohio State
University.
0 min
October 11, 2007 Lecture 16: The Starry Messenger - Galileo and the Telescope
Tycho reached the limits of what could be done with the naked eye. A
new technology was required to extend our vision: the telescope. This
lecture introduces Galileo Galilei, the contemporary of Kepler who was
in many ways the first modern astronomer, and describes his many
discoveries with the telescope. These observations electrified Europe
in the early 17th century, and set the stage for the final dismantling
of the Aristotelian view of the world. Galileo's claims that they
constituted proof of the Copernican Heliocentric System, however, were
to bring him into conflict with the Roman Catholic Church. Recorded
2007 Oct 11 in 1000 McPherson Lab on the Columbus campus of The Ohio
State University.
0 min
October 10, 2007 Lecture 15: The Watershed - Tycho and Kepler
In the generation following Copernicus, the question of planetary
motions was picked up by two remarkable astronomers: Tycho Brahe and
Johannes Kepler. Tycho was a Danish nobleman and brilliant astronomer
and instrument builder whose high precision naked-eye measurements of
the stars and planets were to be the summit of pre-telescopic astronomy.
Kepler was the talented German mathematician who was hired by Tycho and
succeeded him after his death who was to use Tycho's data to derive his
three laws of planetary motion. These laws swept away the vast complex
machinery of epicycles, and provide a geometric description of planetary
motions that was to set the stage for their eventual physical
explanation by Isaac Newton a generation later. Recorded 2007 Oct 10 in
1000 McPherson Lab on the Columbus campus of The Ohio State University.
0 min
October 09, 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
differences. Personally, I liked this year's lecture better, but this
will at least cover most of the same material. Oh well.
0 min
October 09, 2007 Lecture 14: The Revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus
In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus revived Aristarchus' Heliocentric System in
an attempt to rid Ptolemy's geocentric system of the un-Aristotelian
idea of the Equant. He desired to create a model of the planets that
would please the mind as well as preserving appearances. Rather than
reinstate the ideal of the Aristotelian World View, he was to set the
stage for its overthrow after nearly 2000 years of supremacy, and within
two centuries give birth to the modern world.
This lecture describes the astronomical world from the end of the classical
age until the birth of Copernicus, and then describes his revolutionary
idea of putting the Sun, and not the Earth, at the center of the Universe.
Recorded 2007 Oct 9 in 1000 McPherson Lab on the Columbus campus of The
Ohio State University. NOTE: Due to a recorder malfunction, only the
first 15 minutes of this lecture was recorded.
0 min
October 08, 2007 Lecture 13: The Harmony of the Spheres - Greek Astronomy
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 discuss the various geocentric systems from
the simple crystaline spheres of Anaximander, Eudoxus, and Aristotle
through the Epicyclic systems of Hipparchus and Ptolemy. We will
also briefly discuss what is known of Aristarchus' mostly-lost heliocentric
system, which was to so strongly influence the work of Copernicus. The
ultimate expression of an epicyclic Geocentric system was that
described by Claudius Ptolemy in the middle of the 2nd Century AD, and
was to prevail virtually unchallenged for nearly 14 centuries.
Recorded 2007 Oct 8 in 1000 McPherson Lab on the Columbus campus
of The Ohio State University.
0 min
October 04, 2007 Lecture 12: The Wanderers
How do the planets move across the sky? This lecture discusses the
motions of the 5 naked-eye planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and
Saturn) as seen from the Earth. We introduce the major configurations
of the planets, and then discuss their apparent retrograde motions. The
apparent motions of the planets are far more complex than those of the
Sun, Moon, and stars, and present a great challenge to understand. The
centuries long effort to understand these motions was to give birth to
modern science. Recorded 2007 Oct 4 in 1000 McPherson Lab on the
Columbus campus of The Ohio State University.
0 min
October 03, 2007 Lecture 11: The Calendar
How do we make calendars? This lecture explores the astronomical
origins of our calendars. We start by discussing lunar and solar
calendars and their hybrids in history and tradition (for example, the
Islamic Lunar Calendar and the Hebrew Luni-Solar Calendar), and then
describe the Julian and Gregorian Calendar reforms that attempt to align
the calendar with the seasons of the year with greater degrees of
precision. Recorded 2007 Oct 3 in 1000 McPherson Lab on the Columbus
campus of The Ohio State University.
0 min
October 02, 2007 Lecture 10: Telling Time
What time is it? Telling time is the oldest practical application of
astronomy. Today's lecture is the first of a 2-part lecture on the
astronomical origins of our methods of keeping time and making
calendars. This lecture reviews the divisions of the year into the
solstices, equinoxes, and cross-quarter days, the division of the year
into months by moon phase cycles, months into weeks, and the division
of the day into hours by marking the location of the Sun in the sky
Recorded 2007 Oct 2 in 1000 McPherson Lab on the Columbus
campus of The Ohio State University.
0 min
October 01, 2007 Lecture 09: Eclipses of the Sun and Moon
Among the most amazing sights in the sky, eclipses of the Sun and
Moon have long fascinated us. This lecture describes the eclipses of
the Sun and Moon, their types, and how often they occur.
Recorded 2007 Oct 1 in 1000 McPherson Lab on the Columbus campus
of The Ohio State University.
0 min