REVIEW GUIDE/ASTRO 301/ 46690

		  MONDAY  MAR 07, 2005

Below is a list of topics that you should know and study for the exam on
Mar 9, 2005. This list is only meant as a guide. The exam will not cover 
all topics on this list and it may also have a few  questions on topics 
that are not on this list. 


-- Review all questions on quiz 1 and homework 1 and 2

-- Different types of astronomical objects
 - Stars, planets, different types of galaxies, 
 - Remnants from high and low mass stars. 


-- Objects and structures present at increasing distances from the Sun, 
   from the smallest to the largest scales in the Universe
 - Sun, solar system, Milky way, Local Group, clusters of galaxies, 
   superclusters, large-scale structure made of voids and walls
 - Astronomical Unit (AU), Light year

-- Why are we made of star stuff'?

-- Concept of lookback time. The Hubble Ultra Deep Field                                                                              

-- Motion of astronomical objects 
 - Spin of the Earth. Orbital rotation of the Earth about the Sun.
 - Why do we have winter and summer seasons on Earth?
 - Motion of stars about center of Milky way: what makes them move?
 - The Hubble flow: motion of galaxies away from each other on large scales      

-- History of Astronomy: Greek Science and Renaissance Astronomy.
 - How the geocentric models of Plato, Eudoxus, and Aristotle
   differed from those of Apollonius, Hipparcus, and Ptolemy.
 - Heliocentric models of Tycho, Copernicus, Kepler. 
 - Kepler's three laws of planetary motion.  
 - Galileo Galilei's observations. 
 - Why did the Greeks fail to come up with a correct heliocentric model?

                    
-- Energy 
 - Principle of conservation of energy. 
 - Different forms of energy (kinetic, potential, thermal, radiative)
   and how they get converted into each other.
 - Equivalence of mass and energy in E=mc^2.


-- Force 
 - Mass versus Weight. 
 - Newton's three laws of motion and  Newton's Universal law of gravitation
 - How these law apply to the motion of all bodies including planets.


-- Nature of light (electromagnetic radiation)
 - Light as waves and the meaning of the wavelength of a wave.
 - Light as particles (photons). The relation between the wavelength
   of a photon and its energy.
 - Features of spectra: thermal continuum spectrum, emission lines, 
   and absorption lines.
 - Wien's law and Stefan-Boltzmann law on the thermal spectrum of a 
   macroscopic opaque body (blackbody).
 - How bound electrons in an atom are arranged and the energy they have. 
 - Why does a thin thin layer of gas of a certain composition produce
   emission or absorption lines that can only have certain specific 
   wavelengths?
 - Kirchoff's laws: when do we get absorption versus emission lines?