{"id":99,"date":"2012-03-12T15:20:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-12T20:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/robertscherrer\/?page_id=99"},"modified":"2012-03-12T15:29:30","modified_gmt":"2012-03-12T20:29:30","slug":"current-courses-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/robertscherrer\/current-courses-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Courses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Astronomy 355 (Spring, 2012)
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Order of Magnitude Problems in Astrophysics<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

General Information: <\/strong>Enrico Fermi once asked \u201cHow many piano tuners are there in Chicago?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 This is an example of a \u201cFermi problem\u201d,\u00a0 namely, a problem that can be solved using estimation and approximation.\u00a0 Formal education in physics and astronomy is strongly skewed toward problems with exact solutions, while actual research always requires approximations and estimates, especially in the early stages of any project (these are the famous \u201cback of the envelope calculations\u201d).\u00a0\u00a0 Students are often not exposed to such approximation methods until they actually begin to undertake research, so the goal of this course will be to develop intuition and facility with such calculations.<\/span><\/h4>\n

Time and Place: <\/strong>The class meets every Monday at 12:10.\u00a0 We will meet in the \u201chelp desk\u201d room, 6322 Stevenson.\u00a0 There will be no class on Martin Luther King Day (Jan. 16).<\/span><\/h4>\n

Instructor: <\/strong>Professor Robert Scherrer<\/span><\/h4>\n

Office:\u00a0 6301 and 6601<\/span><\/h4>\n

Phone:\u00a0 2-2828 and 3-6419<\/span><\/h4>\n

Email:\u00a0 robert.scherrer@vanderbilt.edu<\/span><\/h4>\n

Email is normally the easiest way to reach me.<\/span><\/h4>\n

Office hours:\u00a0 Mondays, 11:00 \u2013 12:00.\u00a0 However, as the Chair, I am normally here all of the time.\u00a0 Feel free to stop by whenever you like, even if the door is shut.\u00a0 If you need to make an appointment, contact Don Pickert.<\/span><\/h4>\n

Grades: <\/strong>Grades will be based on attendance and participation.\u00a0 You will be allowed one unexcused absence during the semester without affecting your grade.\u00a0 Please email me for excused absences (illness, school-related travel, etc.)<\/span><\/h4>\n

Organization of the course: <\/strong>Most weeks, we will divide into small groups.\u00a0 A problem will be assigned, and each group will be asked to develop a solution.\u00a0 We will then present and discuss our solutions.\u00a0 We will not be consulting internet resources during the solution of the problem (although we will sometimes do this after solving a problem).\u00a0 Also, calculators should not normally be necessary, since our goal will be order-of-magnitude estimates.<\/span><\/h4>\n

We will spend a small portion of the semester examining approximation methods in more elaborate calculations, e.g., how to determine what factors are relevant in a calculation and what can be ignored, and dimensional analysis.\u00a0 For these cases, we will occasionally revert to a lecture format.<\/span><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Astronomy 355 (Spring, 2012) Order of Magnitude Problems in Astrophysics General Information: Enrico Fermi once asked \u201cHow many piano tuners are there in Chicago?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 This is an example of a \u201cFermi problem\u201d,\u00a0 namely, a problem that can be solved using estimation and approximation.\u00a0 Formal education in physics and astronomy is strongly skewed toward problems with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":647,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":50,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/robertscherrer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/99","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/robertscherrer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/robertscherrer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/robertscherrer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/647"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/robertscherrer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/robertscherrer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/99\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/robertscherrer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/99\/revisions\/105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/robertscherrer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/robertscherrer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}