Course Objectives: This course is designed as a quantitative introduction to the physical principles underlying observed astrophysical phenomena. We will study stars, galaxies, dust clouds, and black holes as physical objects, and try to understand why they behave the way they do. The first third of the course will be devoted to stars -- how they hold themselves up, how they generate light, and why they don't all look the same. Then we'll move on to "galactic ecology," the process by which mass is cycled from the interstellar medium into stars (i.e., star formation), and then spewed back out into the spaces between the stars (i.e., star death). The latter topic will include a study of the remnants of stars, those exotic creatures the white dwarf, neutron star, and black hole. We'll then move on to larger scales and look at our Milky Way galaxy as a single structure. We'll examine its different components and how they all dance together as the galaxy spins around. We'll study other galaxies and try to understand why they don't all look like our Milky Way. Lastly, we'll examine the structure of the universe itself, how it was constructed, and what's likely to happen to it in the future. At each stage, we'll use our knowledge of basic physics to understand these complex objects and phenomena. We'll try to see the behavior of these systems as consequences of a few simple physical laws, and we'll use this understanding to figure out how these systems change with time. At many points during our journey, we'll come upon unsolved problems and poorly understood phenomena. Astrophysics is not a tidy science, where almost everything is well-understood and only a few details remain to be worked out. Really fundamental questions like, "where is most of the universe's mass?" "what are gamma ray bursters?" and "why do stars have the masses they have?" remain unanswered. We'll examine some of these problems and try to understand why the simple, intuitive solutions don't seem to work. This course will be aggressively quantitative, but should not require mathematics beyond multivariable vector calculus and a few differential equations. We will review much of the physics required from the course (e.g., Newtonian gravity, radiation generation and interaction with matter, simple thermodynamics, and relativity) in the first few weeks.
Instructor:	Ned Ladd
	Office: Olin 151 and 189
	Phone: 73102
	AS301 Office Hours: TBA
	Email: ladd@bucknell.edu
	Spring 2000 Schedule
Texts:	Modern Astrophysics, by Bradley W. Carroll and Dale A. Ostlie
Class Meetings:	Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 11:00-12:00, Olin 264
Assignments and Grading: This course is very quantitative and problem-based, and so you will have readings and a few problems assigned for every single class. I will expect that you've done both the reading and the problems when you arrive in class. In each class, I will choose one of you to work one of the assigned problems at the board for the class, so make sure you've done your homework. In addition, you will have problem sets due every Friday for the rest of the semester. The problem sets will consist of problems similar to those we've worked on in class during the previous week or so. Problem sets are due in class on Fridays. I will not accept late problems sets. The only exceptions to the "problem set due every Friday" rule are 25 February and 7 April, when you will have in-class exams. A comprehensive final will be administered during the time scheduled by the Registrar in the spring fianal exam period. Your final grade will be based on these assignments and assessments as follows: Problem Sets (11): 40% Hour Exams (2) : 30% Final Exam (1) : 20% Class participation: 10%