PHYSICS 161: Black Holes, General Relativity, and the Milky Way Want to know what a black hole is and what would happen if you fell in? Want to be able to calculate it yourself? Want to learn about observations of stuff falling into a 4 million solar mass black hole at the Center of our own Milky Way galaxy? This course is for anyone who has a strong curiosity and has completed the Physics 2 or Physics 4 Introductory Physics sequence. (That includes physics 2D or Physics 4D and 4E!) It is part of the Astro sequence 160-161-162-163, but can be taken without 160. We will use calculus and will be learning some new mathematics, but will emphasize conceptual understanding. There will be graded homework and a term paper. We will start with Einstein's remarkable vision of time and space, learning what it means to say that gravity is a bending of spacetime. Then we consider the important black hole case and find how things move and get trapped around a black hole. More qualitative discussion of rotating black holes and wormholes will be followed by discussion of how we discover black holes and what is known about them observationally. Time permitting we will also talk about gravitational lensing and gravity waves. Throughout we will be learning and using the jargon used by practicing astronomers. Almost all branches of physics are used in astrophysics, so besides being fun, this course will exercise your physics, mathematical, and engineering skills by applying them to real-world situations. DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS WINTER QUARTER 2013 PHYSICS 161: Black Holes, General Relativity, and the Galaxy For further information contact Prof. Kim Griest, at 534-8914