CLAR 102 - Inquiry in the Natural World

 

Student Guide, Topic 13:  Where in the Universe Are We?

Spring 2003

 

Topic objectives:  Understand and be able to explain …

 

1.  What are stars?  How do they come into being? What is their energy source?

 

2. Know what were the first generation of stars made of. How do stars generate chemical elements?    How did the elements of which the earth (and ourselves) are made come into existence?  How did they come to be present in the Earth?

 

3. What is the evidence that the universe is expanding, and that it started with a “big bang?

 

4. What are the estimated ages of the universe, the solar system, and life on earth?

 

 

Friday Reading Assignment:

 

Trefil and Hazen, The Sciences, 3rd  edition: Chapter 14 The Stars pp. 301-314.

 

Questions for Friday discussion:

 

1. How were the elements with atomic numbers greater than 2 created?  How did such elements come to be present in the earth?

 

2.  How do a) stellar parallax; b) Cepheid variables (text book)  c)red shifts    enable us to estimate distances in space?

 

3.  Explain why a protostar (newly formed star) heats up as it gravitationally contracts.

 

 

Monday reading assignment:

 

Trefil and Hazen, The Sciences, 3rd  edition: Chapter 15 Cosmology pp. 323-334.

 

Questions for Monday discussion:

 

1.What is the evidence that the universe is expanding?  How does that expansion indicate the age of the universe? 

 

2.In what way are we looking back in time when we look at distant objects?

 

3.  Discuss whether scientists will ever have an answer to the question of the expansion of the Universe, and how the scientific method can sometimes aid or hinder the answer.

 

 

 

CLARE 102 Final Exam- May 5th 3:45 pm Murphy Aud.