This will be the course page for City College Course PHYS 454 in the Spring of 2023.
The course syllabus is here: Syllabus
This course is listed as a zero-textbook course, which means no text book purchase is necessary. That doesn't mean you don't have to read anything. The class notes, and provided readings, will largely cover the material, however, you can supplement them with a number of other books if you feel like you need more information. Some useful ones:
Otherwise known as the Big Orange Book, this book covers just about everything that a full year course in intro astrophysics would cover. This is not a full year course, so there are obviously many sections we won't cover.
This is a more modern, and smaller introductory book. It covers less material and is somewhat more accessible.
The page about the projects/presentations can be found here: About the Projects
Course Content will be available here. Exact Dates are subject to change, but this represents the most likely dates.
Date | Subject (& pdf) | Slides | In class | HW | Extras | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Jan 29 | Intro (pdf) | Slides | Get Colab running! | |||
Jan 31 | Origins (pdf) | Slides | Sun Position Code | HW 1 | ||
Feb 5 | Time mostly | Time Codes | Spring Break 2024 | |||
Feb 7 | Celestial Mechanics (pdf) | Slides | ||||
Feb 12 | ||||||
Feb 14 | Celestial Mechanics (pdf) | Slides | HW 1 Due | |||
Feb 19 | ||||||
Feb 21 | Celestial Mechanics | |||||
Feb 22 | Lagrange Points (pdf) | Slides | HW 2 | |||
Feb 26 | Planetarium | >|||||
Feb 28 | Light (pdf) | Slides | Reading Quiz (paper, sols ) | |||
Mar 4 | Light (pdf) | Slides | ||||
Mar 6 | Light and Matter (pdf) | Slides | HW 3 (HW2 Due) | |||
Mar 11 | Instruments(pdf) | Slides | ||||
Mar 13 | Star Classes(pdf) | Slides | ||||
Mar 18 | Stellar Structure(pdf) | Slides | ||||
Mar 20 | (HW3 Due) | |||||
Mar 25 | Reading Quiz (paper) | |||||
Mar 27 | Stellar Evolution(pdf) | Slides | HW 4 | |||
Apr 1 | ||||||
Apr 3 | ||||||
Apr 8 | ||||||
Apr 10 | HW 4 Due | |||||
Apr 15 | ||||||
Apr 17 | ||||||
Apr 22 | ||||||
Apr 24 | ||||||
Apr 29 | ||||||
May 1 | ||||||
May 6 | ||||||
May 8 | ||||||
May 13 | Project Present | |||||
May 15 | Project Present |
For email communication, please include in the subject: PHYS454. (This is to make sure I see it.)
To comply with FERPA guidelines, please use your ccny email to correspond with me. Include your name and section number, and EMPLID if you need administrative actions done. If you will be missing class or other activities due to illness, state that and that only. It's inappropriate and unprofessional to share details about vomiting, migraines, etc. Keep that between you and your medical provider or family, not your physics teacher.
Some student resources you might want to use can be found here: CCNY Campus Resources