From Stargazers to Starships
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Astronomy of the Earth's motion in space:
1. The Sky Above Us
2. The Path of the Sun, the Ecliptic
2a. Building a Sundial
3. Seasons of the Year
4. The Angle of the Sun's Rays
5. Maps of the Heavens
6. The Calendar
7. Precession
8. The Round Earth and Christopher Columbus
8a. Distance to the Horizon
8b. How Distant is the Moon?--1
8c. How Distant is the Moon?--2
8d. Parallax
9. Discovery of the Solar System
10. Kepler and his Laws
11. Kepler's First Law of Planetary Motion
12. Kepler's Second Law
12a. How Orbital Motion is Calculated
.Newtonian mechanics
13. The Way Things Fall
14. Vectors
15. Energy
16. Newton and his Laws
17. Mass
17a. Mass Measurements aboard Space Station Skylab
18. Newton's Second Law
19. Motion in a Circle
20. Newton's theory of "Universal Gravitation"
21. Kepler's Third Law
21a. Applying Kepler's Third Law
22. Frames of Reference: The Basics
22a Airplane Flight
23. Frames of Reference: The Centrifugal Force
24. Rotating Frames of Reference in Space and on Earth
.Spaceflight and Spacecraft
25. The Principle of the Rocket
26. Robert Goddard and his Rockets
27. The Evolution of the Rocket
28. Spaceflight
29. Spacecraft
29a. Satellites observing the Sun, solar system and the universe
29b. Satellites observing Earth from above
29c. Satellites which observe the local space environment
29d. Satellites for commercial benefits
29e. Missions to planets and distant space
30. Far-out Pathways to Space: Great Guns?
30a. Project HARP and the Martlet
31. Far-out Pathways to Space: Nuclear Power
32. Far-out pathways to Space: Solar Sails
32a. Early Warning of Interplanetary Disturbances
33. Ion Rockets
34. Orbits in Space
34a. The Distance to the L1 Point
34b. The L4 and L5 Lagrangian Points
35. To the Planets, To the Stars
35a. Planetary Swing-by and the Pelton Turbine
A Math Refresher
Home page
Elements of algebra
(M-1) Basic ideas
(M-2) How it all started
(M-3) Formulas
(M-4) Identities
(M-5) Deriving Approximate Results
(M-6) The Theorem of Pythagoras
Elements of trigonometry
(M-7) What is it good for?
(M-8) How to tell sines from cosines
(M-9) Deriving sines and cosines
(M-10) Going past 90 degrees
(M-11) Deriving sin(a+b), cos(a+b)
Helpful Material
Hints to users.
A Glossary of Terms (Cross-linked, keyed to the text)
Timeline (A chronology).
Annotated Timeline (With added dates from history).
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