Preliminary Physics: The Cosmic Engine

1. Our Sun is just one star in the galaxy and

ours is just one galaxy in the universe.
Outline historical development of models of
Universe from time of Aristotle to Newton.
1. Aristotle:
Believed Earth was at the centre of the universe,
& Sun, the Moon and the visible planets, as well
as a celestial sphere containing all the stars,
revolved around the Earth.
No technology with which to examine the
heavens, only naked eye. This was known as the
geocentric model.

2. Aristarchus:
He disagreed with Aristotle and put forward an
alternative view. Suns relative mass much larger
than Earth, making it central.
Earth rotates on an axis once per day, producing
the apparent motion of the Sun and stars. This
was known as the heliocentric model.
People did not favour his idea over Aristotles
model as his predictions were not sufficiently
detailed.

3. Apollonius:
Supported geocentric, developed epicycles
accounting for apparent retrograde motion of
planets as observed from Earth.
4. Hipparchus:
Refined Apollos model, found out Sun was
further away at diff. times, placing Earth centre
due to this. Stellar magnitudes discovered.
5. Ptolemy: He refined Aristotles geocentric model
elaborately that it successfully convinced the
Roman church to be considered the correct
model of the universe. Concentric circles were
introduced and this lasted 1400 years.
6. Copernicus: proposed heliocentric model (Sun was
stationary at the centre of the universe,
everything revolved in circles about it). Before his
death, Copernicus had already published ideas.
Nevertheless, his work was branded as heretical, a
crime against the churchs teachings.

7. Tycho Brahe: He constructed his own
astronomical instruments and studied the sky
precisely. His own model of the universe which
consisted of a combination of the geocentric and
heliocentric models. His model had all of the
planets, except Earth, revolving around the Sun,
while the Sun revolved around the stationary
Earth. He could not show the parallax effect (the
slight shift in the positions of stars, due to the
earths orbit around the Sun, because the largest
parallax of a star is less than one second of an
arc).
Preliminary Physics: The Cosmic Engine

8. Kepler: Assistant to Tycho Brahe, mathematician.
Kepler only needed the raw data, provided by
Brahe, to find a mathematical basis for the motion
of the planets. His model proposed:
The Law of Ellipses: each planet moves in an
ellipse orbit around the Sun at one focus.
The Law of Areas: the speed of the planets along
their elliptical orbits is such that they sweep out
equal areas in equal periods of time.
The Law of Periods: the period, T, of the orbit of a
planet is related to the average radius (with the
Sun as the focus).


9. Galilei: His crime was that he believed that the
Earth moved around the Sun and that there might
be inhabited worlds in the universe other than our
own. Galileo was the first to construct a telescope
pointed at the night sky, discovered the massive
number of stars. Significant point, however, was
Jupiters moons were orbiting Jupiter, not the
Earth. This was proof that Ptolemys complicated
geocentric model was incorrect.
10. Newton:
Analysed the force of gravity between two masses
to provide a better mathematical description
Realised that the force of gravity that acts on an
object close to the Earths surface is the same
force that holds the Moon in its orbit around the
Earth and the Earth in its orbit around the Sun.
Used Keplers Laws and the idea that F is
proportional to 1/d(2) to deduce his Law of
universal Gravitation.



2. The first minutes of Universe released
energy which changed into matter,
forming stars and galaxies.
Outline discovery of expansion by Hubble,
following earlier prediction by Friedmann.
1. Friedmann solved Einsteins eqns. Without
cosmological constant, found open and
closed universe.
2. Open-universe will continue to expand, time
has no end.
3. Closed-time and space begin and end. Big-
bang will end when gravity stops expansion
and pulls all matter together (Big-squeeze).
4. People see further into space (tech).
5. Hubble discovered pulsating star-brightness
varied in regular pattern, distance much
further than most distant star known.
6. Multiple galaxies, Milky way smaller part
Preliminary Physics: The Cosmic Engine
7. Doppler effect- frequencies of the light
received from nebulae lower than in normal
light spectrum. Each spectrum line closer to
red end of spectrum than usual. Using the
amount of red-shift, he found their speeds.
8. Galaxies move away from us (all directions),
further they are, faster movement.
9. Hubbles expanding model (sim. To exploding
bomb) implied matter concentrated in one
position, then came outwards.
10. Evidence: reversing velocities of galaxies,
imagining their backwards motion. They meet
at same position, same time in space.
11. Every cluster of galaxy held together by
gravitational forces. It is space between that
increases.
Describe transformation of radiation into
matter which followed Big Bang.
1. Universe started at intense heat, cooling as it
expands.
2. Initially compressed into zero volume, with
infinite density and has been expanding since
the Big Bang, about 15 billion years ago.
3. Universe started as energy, condensing &
forming simple particles, then complex as
temperature fell.
4. Gravity collected newly formed particles
together to form todays Universe.
5. About 300,000 years after the Big Bang, the
temperature of the Universe had dropped
enough for Hydrogen atoms to form from
electrons and protons.
6. From this time the radiation was set free from
matter.
7. At the beginning of the big bang, there was
only radiation. However over time ranging
from 300 seconds to 1 million years, the
particles combined to form atoms (matter).
8. Radiation tends to interact with charged
particles, being bounced around so that it is
not free to move through the universe.
Identify that Einstein described equivalent of
energy and mass.
1. In 1915 Einstein proposed his Special
Theory of Relativity in which he deduced
the relationship between energy and mass
as

2. This equation indicates that energy and
mass are simply different forms of the
same entity; mass could be created from
energy and energy could be created by
mass.
3. Outline how accretion of galaxies and stars
occurred thorugh:
a. Expansion + cooling of Universe
b. Subsequent loss of particle kinetic
energy.
c. Gravitational attraction between
particles.
d. Lumpiness of the gas cloud that then
allows gravitational collapse.
1. Big Bang created anti-matter and matter
annihilations, producing energy.
2. Created a lumpy Universe, pockets of
unevenly distributed matter (gas clouds) with
enormous empty spaces where it occurred.
3. Protogalaxies individual matter clouds had
some parts denser than others. Denser parts
exerted greater gravitational attraction on
less dense, accumulating into a rotating cloud.
4. Growing clumps formed within larger matter
cloud. Speed of rotation increased, causing
flattening of cloud and formation of disc
perpendicular to axis of spin.
5. Total stars: 10^22 stars (we only see 5000)