Astronomy 00‪1‬ Pennsylvania State University

An introduction to the ASTR 001 online course, with a brief description of the format of the course and the various assignments.

A demonstration of the difference between a sidereal day and a solar day. This difference occurs due to the fact that Earth rotates about its axis while also revolving around the Sun.

A demonstration recreating Galileo’s experiment, where he dropped two objects of different masses, to see which would hit the ground first.

A demonstration of Newton’s First Law. As a tablecloth is pulled out from under a place setting, the place setting remains unmoved.

A demonstration of Newton’s First Law. A ball is swung in circular motion, then let go, demonstrating that when no forces act upon an object, it will move in a straight line.

A demonstration of two laws that govern blackbody radiation. As a stove top becomes hotter, it radiates first in infrared, then red (visible) light. Comparing two stove top burners, given two burners at the same temperature, the one with the larger surface area will boil water faster.