From Stargazers to Starships

Welcome!

You have reached the homepage of a tutorial exposition focused on 3 topics:

• Astronomy of the Earth's motion in space.
• Newtonian mechanics.
• Spaceflight and spacecraft
  Also containing
  • A Math Refresher.
  • Helpful Material--hints for users, glossary, guide to teachers, problems, timeline etc.
  

   For easier reading, view this site with size 14 font (but print out with size 10 or 12). The material is self-contained, at the high-school level, rich in history and is best studied in the order listed below.
    "Stargazers" files are also available as a TARed and GZIPed file via anonymous FTP  
    You are also invited to visit our sister site or to send comments or questions to the author.

  You will find here:

  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

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  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)

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  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).
  

'Stargazers' in the Classroom  
Inventory of concepts, calculations and stories, by section.
A list of problems related to the material.
"Using Space to Teach Physics"    (draft of article in The Physics Teacher, Feb.'99)