Marshall's Astro 7 Stuff
 | Course Description
Description: This is the first part of an overview of astrophysics, with an emphasis on the way in which physics is
applied to astronomy. This course deals with the solar system and stars, while 7B covers galaxies and cosmology.
Solar system topics include orbital mechanics, geology of terrestrial planets, planetary atmospheres, and the
formation of the solar system. The study of stars will treat determination of observations, properties and stellar
structure, and evolution. The physics in this course includes mechanics and gravitation; kinetic theory of gases;
properties of radiation and radiative energy transport; quantum mechanics of photons, atoms, and electrons; and
magnetic fields.
Text:
An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics by Carroll and Ostlie. Frank Shu's book The Physical Universe and Introductory Astronomy and Astrophysics by Stephen A. Gregory & Michael Zelik are recommended secondary texts. | | Course Time and Location
Time:Tues & Thurs 2-3:30
plus three 1 hour discussion sections at various times.
Location: Kroeber Hall 155. |
| Syllabus
The course syllabus is here |
- Week one notes: Orbital mechanics.
PS,
PDF
- Week two notes, practice problems, solutions.
PS,
PDF
- Week three notes: Black bodies, Poynting Vector, colors.
PS,
PDF
- Week four notes: Atomic Structure and Quantum Mechanics
PS,
PDF
- Week five - midterm, no notes.
- Week six notes: Statistical Mechanics
PS,
PDF
- Week seven notes: Radiative Transfer
PS,
PDF
- Week eight notes: More on Spectral Lines
PS,
PDF
- Week nine - midterm, no notes.
| It's all just Greek to me...
We use Greek letters all the time. If you're not familiar with what they all are, here is a reference. |
| Tips for Problem Solving
I wrote up a quick list of tips on solving astrophysics problems, available here. Some of these are pretty obvious, some are not, so take a look. |
| Practice Midterm Questions
The practice questions from Marshall's review session for midterm one (and their answers) are posted here and some more here
Practice questions for the second midterm can be found here. The figure of the light curve for problem 5 is
here
|
