Courses

Spring 2019

Theories of the Universe: From Babylon to the Big Bang

, 3 pts, UN1610

THEORIES OF THE UNIVERSE

Milestones in the science of cosmology over the past 6000 years. Skylore and observation in ancient cultures. The twin revolutions of the Greeks: Pythagoras and Ptolemy; and Aristotle, Aquinas, and the Great Chain of Being. The "scientific revolution": the impersonal and deterministic world-order of Newton, Laplace, and Kelvin. The erosion of that world-order by mathematics and experiment in the 20th century (relativity, quantum physics, dark matter, and the expanding universe). Today's searches for a new grand order in the Universe, which can cope - or maybe not - with these blows to yesterday's comfortable wisdom.

Section Number
001
Call Number
11019
Day, Time & Location
TR 2:40PM-3:55PM 329 Pupin Laboratories
Instructor
Joseph Patterson