Astronomy                 Natural Science 1001

Courses
Astronomy
Meteorology
Geology

Links
Astronomy
Meteorology
Geology

Primary Goals

• Understand terms  used in motion, energy, and matter.
• Understand concepts of motion and energy.

Definitions    [p. 110-114]   

Orbits

• Center of mass [p. 124-125]   Explanation D2L
  --Describe the orbits of two or more objects that orbit each other. What do the objects go around?
  --How does mass of the objects affect the relative location of the center of mass?
  --Describe how the concept of center of mass can be applied to:
     --the orbits of material going around galaxy
     --the orbits of material in the solar system
  --What do we mean when we talk about the orbit of the Earth-moon system around the sun?
  --Links
      --Binary stars from McGraw-Hill    [Simple--circular orbits]
      --Binary star simulator      [more involved]
      --Earth-Moon system animation--going around c.o.m--and another
      --interactive from McGraw-Hill--how mass and distance affect speed of planet around sun
       --Place a planet with speed around the sun to see orbit
      --Multiple star systems--to kind of see c.o.m.
      --Make a planet orbit around the sun
• Shape of orbits   [p. 66]
• Speed of object during orbit   [p. 66-67]
  --How does the speed of an object vary as it goes around the center of mass?
  --How does the shape of the orbit affect the relative speed?
  --Links for Kepler's 2nd Law
     --very good interactive--1 planet around star  
     --two planet interactive
• Other principles
  --Define orbital speed and orbital period
  --How does the orbital speed of objects in our solar system vary with position from the sun? [p. 70]
  --How does mass of an object affect the orbital speed around our sun?

Newton's First Law of Motion     [p. 115-116]

• Victims of physics
• Museo Galileo in Florence
  --Galileo's finger 

Gravity      [p. 123-124]     Explanation D2L

• Explain what affects the strength of the gravitational force between two objects

Escape Velocity      [p. 127-128]

• interactive
• comparing

Energy   

• Conservation of energy   [p. 119-120, 123]
• Gravitational potential energy   [p. 121-122]
  --Why is GPE important to us?
• Orbital energy  [p. 126]
  --In what situations will we be discussing orbital energy?
• Gravitational encounters   [p. 127]
  --Describe a gravitational encounter
  --How is orbital energy affected when a gravitational encounter occurs?
  --animation
• Mass potential energy   [p. 122]

Matter     [p. 144-146]       Explanation D2L

• Be able to describe the following items: element, atom, nucleus, proton, neutron, electron, molecule, isotope, electrical charge, charged particle, ion

Phases of Matter  [p. 147] 

• Describe a plasma    [p. 148]

Extra

• Space junk
      --Tracking reentry (SATVIEW)
      --NASA Orbital Debris Program
• Kepler's 2nd law [Equal areas concept]  --from McGraw-Hill
• kepler's 3rd law   --from McGraw-Hill