100
An introduction to astronomy for the non-science major. This course satisfies the Core requirement for a lab course in natural sciences. The course begins with an historical development of astronomy and a qualitative account of relevant principles of science. Topics include the tools of astronomy, the solar system, stars and stellar evolution, the Milky Way, extragalactic astronomy, cosmology, and life in the universe. Two one-hour lectures and one two-hour laboratory per week.
Learn how to build and control simple robotic devices, and along the way you will learn the fundamentals of logic and control common to all computer programming languages. We will perform numerous discovery exercises in the laboratory, to introduce and practice experimental methods and mathematical modeling useful for physics. This course satisfies the Core requirement for a laboratory course in the natural sciences. Students who have taken
PHYS 205 or
CS 120 must have instructor approval to enroll in
PHYS 155/
ENGR 155. Two two-hour laboratories per week.
Is it possible to travel faster than the speed of light? Could time travel become a reality? Would it be possible to create a teleporter? Do wormholes exist? Is antimatter real? To answer these questions we will explore the key ideas of relativity and quantum mechanics, and the famous experiments that led to the discovery of these ideas. We will study the relative nature of time, wave/particle duality, and the uncertainty principle in detail. This course satisfies the Core requirement for a laboratory course in the natural sciences. Two one-hour lectures and one two-hour laboratory per week.
Special Topics courses include ad-hoc courses on various selected topics that are not part of the regular curriculum, however they may still fulfill certain curricular requirements. Special topics courses are offered at the discretion of each department and will be published as part of the semester course schedule - view available sections for more information. Questions about special topics classes can be directed to the instructor or department chair.