Course Description
History and development of general relativity, supernovae and compact objects. Observational evidence for stellar and supermassive black holes. Primordial black holes, wormholes, and the Big Bang. Contributions of Einstein, Chandrasekhar, Oppenheimer, Zwicky, Wheeler, Zel'dovich, Hawking, and Penrose.
Athena Title
BLACK HOLES
Semester Course Offered
Offered spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
To provide the non-science-major student with an appreciation of the details and complexity involved in the development of the concept of black holes and to describe the consistency between the observational evidence and the theoretical framework.
Topical Outline
History and development of general relativity, supernovae and compact objects. Observational evidence for stellar and supermassive black holes. Primordial black holes, wormholes and the Big Bang. Contributions of Einstein, Chandrasekhar, Oppenheimer, Zwicky, Wheeler, Zel'dovich, Hawking and Penrose. Will use primarily BLACK HOLES AND TIME WARPS: EINSTEIN'S OUTRAGEOUS LEGACY by Kip Thorne. Supplemented by GRAVITY'S FATAL ATTRACTION: BLACK HOLES IN THE UNIVERSE by Mitch Begelman and Martin Rees, and by readings from current issues of "Astronomy," "Sky & Telescope," "Mercury," and "Scientific American."
General Education Core
CORE II: Physical Sciences