The material from Lecture #1 and the following questions and problems will be discussed in the Discussion Section meeting on Wednesday, Sep 28. Homework solutions will be posted about Sep 27.

Read and understand the use of the metric system, scientific notation & vectors described in Chapter 1. Further review is provided on our Units Page. A second WebPage will give you an idea of The Scale of The Universe & from the smallest of allest to the very biggest.

Here is a Web Page on the History of Astronomy which covers many of the subjects discussed in Lecture #1. Many of the links (e.g. The Galileo Project) are highly recommended.

1. Briefly compare one tenet of the Aristotilean/Ptolemaic world view with the Galilean/Copernican/Newtonian principle that replaced it. What "observation" or argument supported the Aristotilean view? (Given the times do you think these were reasonable arguments?) How was it refuted?