From Stargazers to Starships
Welcome!
You have reached the homepage of an introductory study course covering:
Astronomy of the Earth's motion in space
Newtonian mechanics
The Sun
Spaceflight and spacecraft
It also contains
A Math Refresher
Helpful Material - hints for users, glossary, questions and answers, two timelines etc.
You will find here;
.Astronomy of the Earth's motion in space
1). Stargazers
a. Finding the Pole Star
2). The Path of the Sun, the Ecliptic
a. Building a Sundial
3). Seasons of the Year
a. The Brightest Moon of the Century
4). The Angle of the Sun's Rays
a. The Moon: the Distant View
b. The Moon: A Closer Look
5). Latitude and Longitude
a. Navigation
b. Coordinates
6). The Calendar
7). Precession
8). The Round Earth and Christopher Columbus
a. Distance to the Horizon
b. Parallax
c. How Distant is the Moon?--1
d. How Distant is the Moon?--2
9). The central role of the Sun
a. Aristarchus: Is Earth Revolving around the Sun?
b. The Earth's Shadow
c. Copernicus, Galileo, and the Discovery of the Solar System
10). Kepler and his Laws
11). Graphs and Ellipses
a. Ellipses and Kepler's First Law
12). Kepler's Second Law
a. How Orbital Motion is Calculated
.Newtonian mechanics
13). The Way Things Fall
14). Vectors
15). Energy
16). Newton and his Laws
17). Mass
a. Mass Measurements aboard Space Station Skylab
b. Comparing Masses without the Use of Gravity
18). Newton's Second Law
a. Momentum
19). Motion in a Circle
20). Newton's theory of "Universal Gravitation"
21). Kepler's Third Law
a. Applying Kepler's Third Law
22). Frames of Reference: The Basics
a. The Aberration of Starlight
b. The Theory of Relativity
c. Airplane Flight
23). Accelerated Frames of Reference: Inertial Forces
a. Frames of Reference: The Centrifugal Force
b. Loop-the-Loop
24). Rotating Frames of Reference in Space and on Earth
.The Sun
The Sun--Introduction
S-1). Sunlight and the Earth
A. Weather and the Atmosphere
S-2). Our View of the Sun
S-3). The Magnetic Sun
S-4). The Many Colors of Sunlight
A. Experimenting with Colors
S-5). Waves and Photons
S-6). Seeing the Sun in a New Light
A. Interplanetary Magnetic Field Lines
S-7). The Energy of the Sun
S-8). Nuclear Power
.Spaceflight and Spacecraft
25). The Principle of the Rocket
26). Robert Goddard and his Rockets
27). The Evolution of the Rocket
28). Spaceflight
29). Spacecraft
a. Satellites observing the Sun, solar system and the universe
b. Satellites observing Earth from above
c. Satellites which observe the local space environment
d. Satellites for commercial benefits
e. Missions to planets and distant space
30). Far-out Pathways to Space: Great Guns?
a. Project HARP and the Martlet
31). Far-out Pathways to Space: Nuclear Power
32). Far-out pathways to Space: Solar Sails
a. Early Warning of Interplanetary Disturbances
33). Ion Rockets
34). Orbits in Space
a. The Distance to the L1 Point
b. The L4 and L5 Lagrangian Points
35). Starships
a. Planetary Swing-by and the Pelton Turbine
.A Math Refresher
Home page
Elements of algebra
M-1). Basic ideas
A. Algebra Proficiency Drill
M-2). How it all started
M-3). Formulas
M-4). Identities
M-5). Deriving Approximate Results
M-6). The Theorem of Pythagoras
Elements of trigonometry
M-7). What is it good for?
M-8). How to tell sines from cosines
M-9). Deriving sines and cosines
M-10). Going past 90 degrees
M-11). Deriving sin(a+b), cos(a+b)
A. Trigonometry Proficiency Drill
.Helpful Material
Questions and Answers by users of "Stargazers".
Hints to users.
A Glossary of Terms (Cross-linked, keyed to the text)
Timeline (A chronology).
Annotated Timeline (With added dates from history).
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