UN1610: Theories of the Universe | J. Patterson

Astronomy
Undergraduate Lecture
Tu Th 2:40-3:55PM

Milestones in the science of cosmology over the past 6,000 years. Skylore and observation in ancient cultures. The twin revolutions of the Greeks: Pythagoras and Ptolemy; and Aristotle, Aquinas, and the Great Chain of Being. The “scientific revolution”: the impersonal and deterministic world-order of Newton, Laplace, and Kelvin. The erosion of that world-order by mathematics and experiment in the 20th century (relativity, quantum physics, dark matter, and the expanding universe). Today’s searches for a new grand order in the Universe, which can cope – or maybe not – with these blows to yesterday’s comfortable wisdom.

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