We're done.

Okay. The grades have been turned in and are here. A histogram of the final scores is here. The final scores include my personal 4% assessment. Your materials can be retrieved from my office any time you're back on campus. Your book reviews will have two RACM grades, the first for Part 1. and the second for Part 2.

I really hope you have had a good experience and, as I noted the first day, that you'll say "hi" to a physicist if you see one on the street some day! I also hope that when the Higgs Boson is found or when the accelerating universe makes more news, that you'll remember what's behind all of it. (Remember to watch for the vectors on your feet this winter.)

Good luck to everyone. Thanks for being such a good class and working so hard. (Coach has something to say.)

Last accounting of received extra projects

Here is a screen shot of what I've received for the 60 point projects.

Slides are up

The final slides for Wednesday are up. Expts/Ideas is updated. The Last Coach's Corner interview is posted and as a result, now I'm going to seek counseling. Good luck.

Monday's slides are up

The slides on General Relativity and the expanding universe are uploaded.

Ideas/Expts

I'm still writing the Ideas/Expts material to guide you to 20th century topics for the final exam (remember, at the level of March and Spielberg). Some of it is up, but the rest will be done tonight.

numbers, to date

The grades that I have for quizzes and journals are here. The status of the extra materials handed in is here. Please look at both of these and let me know of any mistakes that I may have made. Lotsa numbers, easy for me to mistype, overlook, mess up...thanks.

Final Exam

...will be just like the midterm. The material covered will start where the Midterm left off, plus one lecture. That is, the material from "precise_2" through this week is in play.

I suggest paying attention to the Ideas/Expts web page for an indication of what topics I consider important. For the material covered on Friday night, only information on those topics listed in Ideas/Expts as covered by March and/or Spielberg is necessary.

The number of points in the final exam is 135. (For comparison, recall that the number of points in the midterm was 90, for the journals is 160, and the quizzes is 70). Good luck!

Journal End Game

Here's how to finish the journals.

• The Journal you turn in Monday is #14. It should include last Monday and Wednesday's material, but not Friday's. That stuff was for completeness, and should be thought of as a backup to the reading material, and not the other way around which is the normal situation.
• The last bit is to be handed in at the final. It can be on paper, disk, or CD—or if you would like for the Department of Physics and Astronomy to print it out (which it would be thrilled to do) by email to me by the final exam time. It has three components to it:
• your conclusion, which should appear just below your introduction as it did in the template,
• a prettied-up version of your previous 14 drafts, and
• a briefer-than-normal account of next week's material (a 15th entry).
• This means there could be this odd exchange at Final Time: you turn in a final version of Introduction, Conclusion and 15 entries and I turn back the 14th entry graded. However, I will endeavor to have them graded by Friday next week (10th) if you want to come by for it.

Friday lecture slides are up

The slides from Friday evening are uploaded. I will work through the weekend on the Cast and Ideas/Expts pages to be more specific about what I would like you to take from that marathon. Let me just note that for all of the Abstract topics, I'll not ask you to know anything for the Final that's not in the assigned readings from March and Spielberg. If I did something in more detail than these readings, their presentation will trump mine. I would look at their questions for guidance.

lecture slides are up

The lecture slides from Wednesday on the beginnings of quantum theory are up. Please look at the "extra" material in Cast, Ideas/Expts, etc for a feel of what is to be considered important. Also, please be reading in the texts for more details and other presentations of these ideas.

The status of the extra assignments as of 12/02/04 is here.

Nobel Prize

A list of the physicists who have won Nobel prizes whom we have, or will, discuss is available from the Cast web page.

pizza night.

Just to be sure: the class on friday, December 3, will be from 6:00-8:00pm in our regular lecture room, 1420BPS. Pizza orders will be made in advance, so please be sure that you've had your say on the blog about the kind and quantity of food you want. Drinks are up to you.

EndGame

Lots of stuff posted today...read all of them here, and below!

Here are issues/reminders/announcements regarding the final minutes of the course.

Final. Since we are a 1.5 hour class, we've sort of got our choice between the standard time for a 4:10 class and for a 5:20 class. The former is Thursday and the latter is Tuesday. I have always opted for more days to grade, and so our final is Tuesday, December 14, at 5:45pm. Nominally, this goes until 7:45, but there will be nobody in the room after us and I have always let anyone stay as long as they wish (assuming that they are still breathing). However, you won't need more than 2 hours. There are a few folks who have conflicts with this time, or 15 other exams that same day. Let me know. I have an alternative for you.

Projects. The Web Bio is due that day, and I would like to really get it in by then. "Getting it in" means sending me a URL. Other projects that may be delayed for some reason that we've discussed should really get to me by that time also, otherwise we should talk again.

Final Grades. I must have my grades turned in by the following Monday. Once I have done that, I will post the anonymous spreadsheet and from home, or wherever, you can find your grade. Freaking is not encouraged, not allowed, nor will it be necessary.

Reviews, etc. There are four reviews of your ISP213H experience that I do. Two (SIRS and SOCT) are for the university, and Integrative Studies and are "mandatory." This year, IS in the sciences is a part of a pilot program to do this electronically, rather than with the bubble sheets. To do this, you apparently go to this web page, log in, and complete the review. It's available until, I think, 12/10. The Physics and Astronomy has its own review which is short answer and does not have a deadline. I can give it to you the last day of class and you can complete it and bring it to the final and give it to John or Marc. Finally, I will have a somewhat detailed review that I would like you to thoughtfully complete. It's detailed enough, that I'll give you extra points for doing it. I'll give it to you the last day of class. In order to keep that anonymous, John or Marc will have a check sheet on which they will enter your name as having turned it in at the final and then I'll get that, without knowing who's review is who's. Every year, I've taken these seriously and made substantial changes according to comments.

that went fast

I know...that went by quickly. But, if you look carefully at my slides and especially, here's where the books come in, carefully read the materials (again, March will be a help, as will Park)...relativity is not as hard as it first seems. Honest.

Still no word on what room for Friday.

status of optional work

The status of what's been turned in for the 60 point optional stuff can be found here. Where there are numbers, I have received materials. They are the total possible points for each project and they have been summed to the right to 60, or something less. The orange rectangle?...means nothing, my mouse was in the way.

Or. Could it represent the Universal Existential Challenge faced by modern society in the face of the despair inherent in postmodern ennui given the poverty of the 21st century angst when confronting the banality of Life In General? Elegant, but yet efficient...Mondrian for the electronic age. You decide.

Let me know if I've messed up your assignments.

Extra class

I've found a time that works for everyone...but one, and he's being a good guy about it. Friday, December 3 from 6:00-8:00PM in a room to be determined (probably our lecture hall). Now, go to the blog and tell me what kind and how much pizza you want, or whether you want salad. Drinks are on you, okay?

lecture slides are uploaded

The slides from Wednesday are uploaded...on the painting of the 19th century, plus a bit of introduction to that of the 20th century. This is supplementary material. (Monday's slides completing the problems that were becoming evident in the late 1800's were uploaded with the previous week's material.)

note:

...there will be many people, theories, and experiments from now on, so please keep up with the entries posted to the Cast, and Ideas/Expts web pages for what issues are important! The Problems lectures are now characterized on those pages.

lecture slides uploaded

Lecture slides from 11/15 & 17 are uploaded.

next week

As I said, we must have class on Wednesday. I will not have office hours on that day. We've had a death in our family and I must leave immediately after class Monday to attend the funeral and will then come back for class on Wednesday, but can't promise that I'll be here before that.

The class on Wednesday will cover the art of the 19th century and the three features that I think distinguish it from previous periods (and what makes modernism difficult): its increasing "self-awareness," its laying the groundwork for abstraction through the abandonment of perspective, and need for the viewer (observer?) as a participant in order to complete its mission.

lecture on Faraday uploaded

The slides from Wednesday are uploaded.

feeling the need to buy you dinner

...as a trade. I really wish that I had another longish class period in order to not end up in a time-crunch. Is there any single night of the week in, say late November or early December, when, in exchange for a pizza dinner, we could have an extra class? It could be on the night of an existing class, or a Tuesday, Thursday, or Friday? If there is objection from anyone, I can't legally have an extra class. If there were two nights required in order to get everyone in, I guess I would do that. I just hate leaving something out of my story in order to end on time and I must have spent too much time on something!

Suppose we picked the last two weeks of class - weeks of 11/28 and 12/ 5...Could you go to the new blog entry and indicate what nights you could NOT meet a class that started, say, at 6pm and went for a couple of hours? hmmm. pizza.

expts, etc uploaded

...the standard informational stuff (cast, experiments, ideas) and silly stuff (Postgame) is uploaded.

midterm front page

The key to the numbers on the frontpage is uploaded as a pdf.

lectures are uploaded

The lecture slides from Monday, 11/8 are uploaded.

grades to date

I have posted the total grades to this date here. Please check them...I wallow in typing numbers and can easily make mistakes. About half of the points are in. Remember that the actual midterm grade (called "midT adj") is corrected for the loss of question 20 from the number that appears on the front of your test.

gripe

Remember, my policy on questioning a potential mistake in grading. Prepare a "gripe" in writing and give it to me with your exam within a week of the day you got it back. I'll look and reply to you electronically. I graded the midterm myself (and I grade all of the quizzes myself and Marc, John, and I grade the journals...jeese, I do a lot of grading).

lecture notes are up

The slides from last week are uploaded. Note: I've included more slides in "precise_5" than I actually talked about Wednesday- I'll finish them off on Monday, but I wanted to keep the file together. Wednesday stopped with the "Aberration of Starlight" slide (#20). Note, more ideas/expts and Cast are up as well, as is a new Coach's Corner. The ideas/expts will proliferate now as we move quickly through verious experiments and theories.

moredontfreak

A longish note, but an important one. Doing some mathematics is always a hard thing in this course: More and more, I will be outlining either mathematical derivations or techniques of higher mathematics that hopefully make a point. What I really want you to do is just sit back and follow the argument and not get too upset at your unfamiliarity with the details. I'll try to make the points clear and, if not immediately apparent, at some point the purpose of the effort will become more obvious.

For some of you, following a derivation like the PV=nRT conclusion line by line will be rewarding - it's doable by all of you. For others of you, I would expect that the plausibility of the whole thing, as well as the reasonableness of the broad themes of the derivation should make sense (which I noted in brown font). I confess that I've not found a way yet to do this efficiently. For full comprehension, you need time to assimilate the steps (if the first kind of person) and for getting the general idea, you need the ability to absorb the concepts (if the second kind of person). I need to eventually figure out a graphical representation of derivations that allows both kinds of you to follow the argument without frustration.

This will happen a number of times in the remaining weeks and I want you to be curious but not become frustrated at trying to do something that I'm not asking you to do.

I used learning a language as an analogy for my goals of mathematics on the first day, remember? Carrying that idea another step, suppose you're barely fluent in French - you need to hear it slowly spoken for 100% comprehension. You ask directions in Paris and the response is such that with the combination of facial gestures, pointing, and the few words that come through as French and as cognates...the intent of the exchange is satisfied - you now know where to go - but you could not repeat those instructions (in French, or in English) word for word. Do you see? It's not as satisfying, but you get to where you need to go.

I could have just said that using Newton's laws, the temperature of a gas can be thought of as the average kinetic energy of the constituents...but you know more than such an unsubstantiated declaration would presume. Isn't it more satisfying to realize a bit of where that statement comes from, without the obligation to re-derive it? That's what I'm trying to do and because I think it's important, I'm going to keep doing it...and with your help, do it better. Okay?

Segre books

...just a reminder. There are two books (really well-done) by Emilio Segre. One is From Xrays to Quarks and the other is From Falling Bodies to Radio Waves. They are historical with Xrays covering the 20th Century, and Falling covering Galileo to 1900 or so. These books are out of print and I've gotten permission from the family to reproduce them for the class. However, SBS put them together backwards. So, if I say chapter 2 in the Segre to read about Newton, then go to the back to find it.

web bio project

The web physicist biography project is uploaded. See Assignments for the details. Note that the blog is involved for the announcement of partners and physicist choices - first come, first served: each physicist can be done by only one group.

web practice assignment up

In preparation for the web biography assignment, I always have added a warm-up exercise that's designed to be simple and cover all of the techniques that you might need to do the big project. The information is in Assignments. Soon, I'll detail the large project, which will be done in pairs...so you can start to find a buddy now if you want.

This entails a tutorial, if you want it. Monday - Thursday next week, John and Marc will be in the computer lab in 121 CHEM, which are reserved for us. There, they will help you through any aspect of this that you need assistance with. You don't have to go, you just need to have enough skill to do the practice project. We'll ask Monday who will be coming, what nights, so they don't sit there all alone if nobody needs to come on a particular night.

We will have no movie this week.

readings uploaded

The readings necessary for the next half of the semester are uploaded into the "topics" section. Remember, I've been urging you to "read strategically" and to my mind that means taking my lectures and reading to fill your gaps, or to entertain (if you don't get enough of that from me). I'm not expecting you to memorize the readings!

lecture slides uploaded

Monday's slides are uploaded (you'll have to just imagine Mr Glandon).

Also, ideas/expts is updated, as is the calendar.

vector handout

The vector pdf appears to be okay now. The file size should have been 12MB, but was only 4MB, so it's transfer must have been interrupted. The link is in the previous message below. Sorry.

vectors

Some of you have asked about vector algebra. I've uploaded a section out of a physics book that might help (~13MB).

slides are uploaded

The slides from 10/20/04 are uploaded.

midterm

The midterm is next week, Wednesday, October 27. It will cover everything that we have done through yesterday's discussion of the Principia. You'll have the whole period and the format will be exactly like the quizzes...just more of 'em. You can find a few more details here.

force be with you

Nothing in physics is trivial, rather the simplest questions are often the most troubling and involve the deepest analysis. Quite by accident, one of this year's Physics Nobel Prize winners, Frank Wilczek, wrote an article this month in Physics Today about:... good 'ole F = ma. It's worth looking at as an example of how we tend to find serious issues within otherwise simple concepts.

grades to date

The grades are posted here for the total quizzes and journals that I have at this time. Please let me know if I've made any mistakes! Your "magic number" is in the column heade "#"...remember, there are still more than 400 points to go and that the mantra is...Don't Freak.

huh?

Okay. Who were those green people and what have they done with the Spartan football team?

lectures...

...from Wednesday are uploaded. They are the last entries in "faithful representation."

slides are uploaded

The first bit on Newton is uploaded.

midterm

We agreed that the midterm would be on Wednesday, October 27th. You'll have the whole period.

I will post more information and content of previous midterms. As the Syllabus says, it will be 30 short answer questions, 3pts apiece.

We will have a quiz next Wednesday as normal.

ask me at the top of class...

...about the Midterm, magic numbers, and the web project.

movie

slides are up

The lecture slides from Monday (Galileo on motion) are up.

Greek Themata optional assignment

The instructions for the Greek Themata optional exercise are in the Optional section of the Assignments page. The Calendar has been updated to reflect its inclusion.

...added after this: I think that the chapter of Holton that was scanned was not as useful as a different one. I'll get it uploaded Monday.

Logic Analyzers:

For those of you doing the Sherlock Holmes assignment, go to the blog area to organize yourselves. There's one very lonely guy there now, plaintively crying into the cavernous vacuum for collaborators... ("cavernous vacuum...I like that...).

example journals

I've posted 3 journal examples of the many that I have received that are 2341-level submissions. I'm particularly impressed with inclusion of all of the important issues and inclusion of examples and references to the readings that support the content.

The examples are hanging off of the Assignments page, where I also gently take the opportunity to quote from the template.

Blogito ergo sum.

Q and B are back.

lectures up

The Kepler and Galileo (astronomy) lectures are up. Monday will be the beginning of science as we know it.

calendar

I have updated the calendar to include the due dates for the 60 point exercise and the movies that I suggest...leaving some movie holes open.

For those of you who have chosen to do two books, we should talk. What you've decided to do is just fine and I don't want you to have to do them both by November 8. Remind me to talk about this some more Wednesday.

no mistakes

After the last couple of days, I thought I would contribute a posting to say that the only mistakes I have made since Monday are undiscovered mistakes. Contributions to ideas/expts/cast/postgame are up... Monday's lecture is up. Quiz tomorrow on last Monday and Wednesday's material. Movie tomorrow is the continuation of the (great) Galileo story.

more website changes. Well, 1 change.

I got to thinking that reading the reading assignments was more difficult than it should be. That is, I've always thought I was clever with my "HW: C3-4"...hike. But, it occurs to me that all of them scrunched together make it hard to follow. So, I've changed them for a bit to "Park: C3-4." Anyhow...take a look.

aack!

The lecture notes from last Monday never got uploaded and I didn't notice until it was just IM'd to me. Sorry about that, as this gives you zero time to properly do this journal on the Scientific Knowledge stuff that was really important. It's there now as ScientificKnowledge_3.

Look, I can't ask you to include this for tomorrow's journal and I don't want to ruin the Monday-Monday grading cycle. So, what I would like you to do is add a separate section to your journal for next week to include the Scientific Knowledge stuff as an add-on to what would otherwise be your regular entry. No extra work, r e a l l y...and you could do it any time this week...

Don't do it for tomorrow (10/4), as that will mess with our grading-brains.

Sherlock

The "logic exercise" assignment is up...in "assignments."

Some website changes

I've added a link ("topics") to the top navigation strip that points to the lecture topics and the readings that go along with them (the link from the syllabus). I've also tried to clean it up a bit.

Don't forget that you owe me your plan for your optional 10%. Note that as per the rules as stated in the syllabus, only one movie review is allowed.

Next week: Tycho, Kepler, and Galileo. It's the Tycho and Kepler story that Sleepwalkers is really all about...We'll not read beyond that from Koestler.

Just as science changes during this period, so too our emphasis...from this point on it will begin to look more like a physics course around here!

lectures are up

The first Renaissance lecture slides are uploaded. They are all in one file, even though they were broken up over two lectures.

some readings and "stuff"

There are some more readings posted for the scientific knowledge section, some recommended. I will post a specific question for those who are interested in doing the "greek scientific knowledge" paper as a part of your 60 point extravaganzas. Oh yes, don't forget you owe me your plan for how you'll do your optional work.

A look ahead: we'll be starting Copernicus Wednesday and move into the high Renaissance period, then quickly to Tycho, Kepler, and Galileo. These last two fellows will occupy us for a while. I hope you're reading (and enjoying) The Sleepwalkers and are able to stay with it. You'll get a kick out of Kepler's mom.

Watch out: last week's lectures are split over Pious Representation and Scientific Knowledge. I'm thinking about your preparation for the quizzes.

The movie for the next two weeks will be:

greetings from washington

Please do not be too concerned about the Logical Empiricism material. In "postgame" I refer to it as halftime and that's how you should think of it. Monday, we'll see how it becomes useful for us as we start into recognizable science. If you got the idea that maybe the best "kind" of knowledge that humans have...scientific knowledge...is enormously complex and maybe not easily characterized...you would be right. This, I am hoping, comes as somewhat of a surprise to you. Note that very little of Wednesday's material has migrated into the Cast or Ideas/Experiments sections which should set your minds at ease? The Renaissance happens very quickly now!

Reaction for next Monday's journal

For next Monday's Journal entry, in addition to your regular material, I would like for you to react to the two David Hume (short) pieces I've put in the Readings Section (hanging off the Syllabus page, right?) with the Scientific Knowledge readings. The other items (from Okasha) there will make Wednesday's material a little easier to follow.

like I told you...

You can always file a "gripe" about grading with me. Just write it down by the next class period and give me your complaint with the original item and I'll adjudicate it.

For those who want to redo the quiz, feel free to redo any question(s) by Wednesday. Better be good, though... ;-)

shortcuts

For those of you who missed the link to the readings until Friday afternoon when I sent out the alarm, I have the following suggestions:

1. stay calm. drink fluids. take two aspirin. get rest. Don't freak.

2. I suggest that if you are behind now and pressed for time, that if you get through the following, you'll be fine:

Sleep Walkers (aka SW)

Part 1, Chapter 3. The Earth Adrift

Part 1, Chapter 5. Divorce from Reality

The How and the Why (aka HW)

Chapter 1. What Is the World?

Chapter 2. How is it Built?

Chapter 3. How Should We Think About It? (Plato & Aristotle)

Chapter 4. The Sky Is a Machine

Chapter 8. Illumination, starting with section: The Decline of Reason (only the R. Bacon and Merton School part...a few pages)

The other stuff assigned is good, but if you followed my lectures okay, you can pick and choose within it for help. Tomorrow will be light on the background, although the recommended links on Giotto might be interesting to some of you.

If you want to delay your Journals until Wednesday, that's okay.

readings & more stuff

1. The changes that I advertised in the last mail message are up. The link inside the syllabus page called now "lecture topics & readings" points to the page with ...um, lecture topics and readings. [You may have to "reload" or "refresh" your browser to see the new pages.] Notice that there are readings for next week's material (so much for promises) — the medieval readings have not changed. (Notice also that I've given you a little popup window for the book abbreviations.) The main splash page for the course will always indicate what the topics are for the next week, and be a tiny art gallery for that period.

2. The link to "assignments" is for specific things you need to do, not for continuing responsibilities like the readings. I have begun to post there instructions on possible projects you can choose for the 10% of your grade that's optional. Note that I need you to make a plan by September 30 for what you're going to do.

stuff...

First, I got word that the modest Sparty Cash deposits are all done. You're each rich. Sorry about this whole thing.

The web material in Cast and Ideas/Expts is updated. We've moved through Medieval into Renaissance Cast members.

The lecture notes from Monday are uploaded...the side link is "pious representation."

Finally, I still owe you specific readings for next week's material. By late tonight...promise.

a word about whatchaneedtoknow

I talk about a lot of stuff and not all of it is of the same importance. On the pages where the lecture slides are posted (let's call this the "lecture notes page"), I try to give you a sense of what's really important, and in some cases, a sense of what you should not worry about (the Aristotle metaphysics is an example of that). But, I don't want to give the impression that what's fair game is only what's mentioned on the Lecture Notes Pages...if I talk about it in class and it's not explicitly excluded, then it's stuff that I would like you to understand and the source of information for you should be the lecture material plus the corresponding sections of the assigned readings.

Here's what I will not do: In the Cast site and the Ideas/Experiments sites are people, philosophies, experiments, and theories that I do think are important. I will not ask you about any person, experiment, theory, or philosophy that's not listed in here. (For example, yesterday I mentioned Anaxagoras...but you won't see his name in Cast. From that you can conclude that I'm not expecting you to know the details of his work.) I hope I'm being clear about this. I'm trying to give you a sense of what I might ask about, without detailing the 47 things that you must know. It's a fine line, I guess, but I hope this is better than nothing?

Lecture slides are up

The slides from today's Aristotle lecture are up. Please note the description of what I'd like you to appreciate in the lecture note page....which is what I'll call the pages at the left where the links to the slides live.

Office hours

The office hours will be...

Marc: Mondays, 12:30 - 2:30

John: Thursdays, 2:00 - 4:00

They will be across the hall from my office in BPS 3208.

quiz

As the calendar says, and as I forgot to mention in class - we have a 10 minute quiz Wednesday at the beginning of class. Don't freak. No problemo.

journals and stuff

I'm enjoying your journals...but am one s l o w reader for grading (remember, I'm used to grading problem sets). One thing, though, for the future: I'm hoping to see that you've integrated the readings into your weekly entries. That is, I'm hoping that my lectures confuse you and you get it when you've read the corresponding material (or...the other way around). This will count towards the "C" part of RACM (which Marc thinks I should call "MARC").

I noticed, by the way, that the long writeup on the journal assignment says that the whole thing is worth 20% and that each entry is worth 5pts. That's not right, an artifact of pre-semester preparation and a "senior moment." The syllabus point assignments is how I plan to do it.

Lectures are uploaded

Slides from Plato are posted. Please note that I found a typo in the x-> (1-x), x-> 1/x mapping illustration. I realized almost as I was talking that it didn't work...and sure enough. It's right now.

Some web site housekeeping

I have made some changes to the website..including the beginnings of "cast" and "ideas/expts" things (more will appear), as well as the calendar and a minute syllabus change. I have decided that I can give you 10 quizzes and throw out 2 and so I'm suggesting we do that and they are posted to the calendar and the syllabus. Finally, the lectures are posted in the Classical Representation link. Have a nice weekend.

Remember

If it wasn't clear...what I'm hoping for in your first Journal submission is the Introduction as described, including your personal reaction to the CP Snow extract and your first journal installment from the lectures of this week. Remember, bring them printed out to class on Wednesday.

oops

I just noticed that I've got two different office hour advertisements! My office hours will be on Wednesdays, 11AM-1PM, as it says in the Syllabus. I think my slide said Tuesdays. Sorry!

Welcome to ISP213H

This is where you'll find announcements of importance througout the semester. Bookmark it and come back daily....Now, take a look at the Assignments link for some things to do.

SiteContents

Here are the contents of the ISP213H site

links across the top:

1. Welcome - This site.

2. syllabus - Office hours/locations, books, lecture plan. (still under construction)

3. assignments - um...just that. (There's stuff there now!)

4. cast - the people we discuss who are important to the course.

5. ideas/expts - physics theories and experiments that are important plus broad philosophical concepts that had an impact on the science.

5. calendar - um...just that. (basically final now)

6. postgame - This is silly...I want to give you a sense after each lecture of how I think I did and how I think you did. Think of it as...a postgame interview/critique.

7. timeline - This is a very nice site that graphically shows historical timelines for many subjects, people, events.

8. blog - This is a forum for the class. Occasionally, I'll ask questions on the blog for you to all answer and discuss, you can "talk" among yourselves, you can ask me questions. (currently under construction)

9. help - um...just that. (currently under construction)

links down the left column:

1. readings - This is where you will go for downloadable assigned readings.

2. Lecture Slides - According to each era, I will post the slides from each lecture, usually by the end of each week..