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Week 2

If someone travels by you at the speed of light you will think that time runs more
slowly for that person (time dilation)
A person moving at the speed of light will disagree with you on observations
If you measure a spaceship moving by you at the speed of light, you will find that
thats its length (in the direction of the motion) shorter than if it was not moving
(length contraction)
If you measure the weight of a spaceship moving by you at the speed f light you
will find that its weight will be greater than if it was not moving. (E=mc^2)
Measurements of motion, space and time by Einsteins theory of relativity tell us
that it only makes sense that we identify relative to something. (ex a plane is
moving 1670 km/h relative to the surface of the earth)
(if you are running on a treadmill at 8km/h, what is your motion relative to?)

1. The laws of nature are the same for everyone


2. The speed of light is the same for everyone

2 people have the same reference frame if they are not moving relative to each
other
You will measure the speed of light to be the same even if youre traveling at 0.9c
If you have headlights on and you are traveling at 0.99c, you will never be able to
catch up or pass the light from your headlights, therefore you are traveling less
then the speed of light always
Week 3
3 dimensions of space and 1 dimension of time make up the 4 dimensions known
as space time
Time runs slowly in gravitational fields. The stronger the gravity the more slowly
time runs
Large masses that undergo rapid changes in motion or structure emit
gravitational waves that travel at the speed of light
Equivalence principle: effects of gravity are the same as the effects of
acceleration
Being weightless can mean you are potentially falling
Shortest distance between 2 points on earth is not a straight line but instead a
line that is part of the great circle route with the centre of the circle as the centre
of the earth. Thats how airplanes fly (visual on pg. 430)
Therefor the shortest path between 2 points in space is not straight but instead
curved
The point of no return is called the event horizon
Lets say you have a ship accelerating. You have 1 person at the back of the ship
and 1 person at the front. You both have watches blinking light every 1 second.
When the ship starts to accelerate. The person in the front will see the blinking in
the back of the ship to be not 1 second apart but slower. So, he will see the
blinking more slowly. Therefore, the person at the front will think that time is
moving more slowly at the back of the ship. The person at the back will see the
front blinking to be faster because it will take less than 1 second to reach him so
he will think that time is passing by faster at the front. Therefore, you both agree
that time is moving faster at the front of the ship and slower at the back of the
ship. The greater the acceleration the greater the difference between the 2 sides
Therefor using the equivalence principle if the spaceship was on earth. Time will
be passing by faster the front of the ship and slower at the back of the ship. The
greater the difference the 2 the greater the time difference
This called gravitational time dilation
Therefor clocks nearer and nearer the black hole will be passing by more and
more slowly
Gravitational lensing: the star close to the sun from our perspective, the light
must curve around the sun because its the shortest distance. Therefore, from
our perspective the position of the star is different (pg.436/435)
Gravitational redshift: (pg. 436) because 1 second lasts longer on the sun than 1
second on earth we see lower frequency which means longer and redder
wavelengths, creating the redshift
Gravitational waves: when a star implodes, or explodes, it creates gravitational
waves. Much like if you drop a stone in a pond and it creates ripples
The size of black hole is measured by the radius of the event horizon
(Schwarzschild radius)
3 properties of black holes: mass, electric charge (not important) and angular
momentum (like a ice skater pulling in her arms and moving around faster and
faster
Singularity: black holes center is infinitely dense

Week 4
Sun is powered by nuclear fusion
Gravitational equilibrium: the inward push caused by gravity and the outward
push caused by nuclear fusion
Energy balance: rate at which fusion releases energy in the suns core and the
rate at which the suns surface radiates this energy
Measure of energy is in joules
Power is the rate which energy is released
Corona: the outermost layer of the sun
Chromosphere: nearer the surface of the sun, its cooler
Photosphere: the visible surface of the sun, it is even cooler
Transmission: glass lets light pass through so it transmits light
3 basic properties of waves: wavelengths, frequency and speed. Amplitude
relates to brightness.
Longer wavelength means lower frequency
Shorter wavelength means higher frequency
Purple, blue, green, yellow, red (order) (high frequency to low)
Why arent there green stars? Because green is in the centre and the peak so
there is other colours being taken as well resulting in a white look instead of
green
Atoms are made up of neutron, protons and electrons
Protons and neutrons are 2000 times more massive than electrons
The properties of atoms mainly depend on the electrical charge in its nucleus
Molecular bands: the absorption lines in a spectrum
2 laws of thermal radiation
1. Each square meter of a hotter object surface emits more light at all wavelengths
2. Hotter objects emit photons with a higher average energy. A hotter object will
have a curve that is bigger and translated to the left so it will peak at a shorter
wavelength

Lets say a train is moving away from you. The noise you will hear will be of lower
frequency aka longer wavelength. The same rule applies for light. If a light bulb is
moving away from you, you will see it as red because of the lower frequency and
person it is moving towards to will see it as blue because of the shorter
wavelength and higher frequency
This is called the Doppler affect.
This also explains the blue shift and redshift we see in galaxies.
Blue means coming toward us, red means going away from us
Look at pg.156
Doppler effect only tells us how fast an object is moving away from us through
our line of sight.
The faster an object is rotating, the broader in wavelength the spectral lines
become. We can determine the rotation rate of distant object by measuring the
width of its spectral lines
Week 5
Nuclear fusion combines 2 smaller nuclei into 1 larger nucleus
Strong force binds protons and neutrons together and is the only force in nature
that can over come electromagnetism
4 hydrogen lead to 1 helium + energy
This is called the proton-proton chain
Look at the 4 steps on pg472
If the temperature of the suns rose slightly, then there would be more nuclear
fusion which would cause the sun to expand but then this would cause the core
to expand and cool. The cooling would make the fusion rate back to normal and
the core size would also return to normal.
The opposite would also be true. If the suns temperature dropped, then the core
would contract and it would heat up causing nuclear fusion
Pg. 474
You can measure the stars surface temperature by the color and the its
spectrum
Weight of star is calculated using Keplers law. When 2 star orbit each other.
Using the orbit
Spectroscopic binary: we identify using the Doppler effect. As the sun periodically
moves close to us and then further away from us

Specific elements produce specific emission lines. So when we see a spectrum


with absorption lines we can correspond those lines to specific elements

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