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Understanding the Universe

An Introduction to Physics and Astrophysics

  • Textbook
  • © 1998

Overview

Authors:
  1. James B. Seaborn

    1. Department of Physics, University of Richmond, Richmond, USA

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Table of contents (21 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xii
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Watchers of the Heavens

    • James B. Seaborn
    Pages 1-15

  3. The Stuff Moves Around

    • James B. Seaborn
    Pages 16-32

  4. Eyes on the Skies

    • James B. Seaborn
    Pages 33-53

  5. Newton Puts It All Together

    • James B. Seaborn
    Pages 54-68

  6. Running the Machine

    • James B. Seaborn
    Pages 69-81

  7. Off the Straight and Narrow

    • James B. Seaborn
    Pages 82-88

  8. The Gravity of It All

    • James B. Seaborn
    Pages 89-103

  9. Round and Round She Goes

    • James B. Seaborn
    Pages 104-112

  10. As the World Turns

    • James B. Seaborn
    Pages 113-126

  11. Let There Be Light!

    • James B. Seaborn
    Pages 127-147

  12. What’s the Matter?

    • James B. Seaborn
    Pages 148-155

  13. Hot Stuff

    • James B. Seaborn
    Pages 156-160

  14. Einstein’s Bundles

    • James B. Seaborn
    Pages 161-171

  15. The Great Dane

    • James B. Seaborn
    Pages 172-186

  16. Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice…

    • James B. Seaborn
    Pages 187-195

  17. The Starry Messenger

    • James B. Seaborn
    Pages 196-217

  18. The Sun Is a Gas

    • James B. Seaborn
    Pages 218-232

  19. The Sun Is a Nuclear Furnace

    • James B. Seaborn
    Pages 233-248

  20. No More to Wonder What You Are…

    • James B. Seaborn
    Pages 249-265
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Keywords

About this book

For the last eighteen years, I have been teaching an introductory course in as­ trophysics. The course is intended for nonscience majors satisfying a general education requirement in natural science. It is a physics course with applications in astronomy. The only prerequisite is the high school mathematics required for ad­ mission to the university. For a number of years, I used an astronomy text, which I supplemented with lecture notes on physics. There are many good astronomy texts available, but this was not a satisfactory state of affairs, since the course is a physics course. The students needed a physics text that focused on astronomical applications. Over the last few years, I have developed a text which my students have been using in manuscript form in this course. This book is an outgrowth of that effort. The purpose of the book is to develop the physics that describes the behavior of matter here on the earth and use it to try to understand the things that are seen in the heavens. Following a brief discussion of the history of astronomy from the Greeks through the Copernican Revolution, we begin to develop the physics needed to understand three important problems at a level accessible to undergraduate nonscience majors: (1) the solar system, (2) the structure and evolution of stars, and (3) the early universe. All ofthese are related to the fundamental problem of how matter and energy behave in space and time.

Reviews

From the reviews

"This excellent text on physics is intended for undergraduate non-science majors. It is a unique introductory physics book in the sense that its emphasis is on applications in astronomy … This kind of well-written and compelling text is the best publicity for the physical sciences! Even science majors and physicists (especially teachers) should read it and enjoy (at least the reviewer enjoyed it a lot)." Mathematical Reviews

 

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Physics, University of Richmond, Richmond, USA

    James B. Seaborn

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Understanding the Universe

  • Book Subtitle: An Introduction to Physics and Astrophysics

  • Authors: James B. Seaborn

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-0689-7

  • Publisher: Springer New York, NY

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

  • Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media New York 1998

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-387-98295-3Published: 12 December 1997

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-1-4612-6868-0Published: 08 October 2012

  • eBook ISBN: 978-1-4612-0689-7Published: 06 December 2012

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XII, 304

  • Topics: Astrophysics and Astroparticles, Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology, Science Education

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