The Stars: Winter Term 2003

Instructor: Mike Bolte

TA : Karrie Gilbert

TA : Nick Konidaris

TA : Jay Strader


The class is nominally about stars -- how they form, live their lives, seed the interstellar medium with freshly-minted elements, and die. Amazingly, we understand the stellar lifecycle very well.

To get to the point where stars can be understood first requires some background in the physics of light, nuclear reactions, hydrostatic equilibrium, and a few other basic physical principles. This class is designed to be self-contained and all the physics required to understand stars will be developed along the way. A sub-theme throughout the class is understanding the way that science works and how scientists think.

This is a "Q" class for undergraduates at the University of California at Santa Cruz -- this means there is some quantitative analysis in the class.


Administrative Details

Web Lab

Here is the histogram of Quiz 1 results and the score->grade key

Here is the histogram of Quiz 2 results and the score->grade key

Here is the histogram of Quiz 3 results and the score->grade key

Here is the histogram of Quiz 4 results and the score->grade key

Here is the histogram of Quiz 5 results and the score->grade key

Here is the histogram of Lab 1 results and the score->grade key

Here is the histogram of Lab 2 results and the score->grade key

Class Notes

The overheads shown in class are sometimes different than the notes below. Here you can view and print the overheads for the class

Quiz 5 Review Page 1

Quiz 5 Review Page 2

Astronomy-related links

Mike Bolte HomePage