MAKING SENSE OF THE COSMOS.

Catalog description

Cross-listed: PHYS 126 . Pre-requisites: MTHD 104 or MTHD 106 , with a grade ≥C, or equivalent math placement score. Satisfies: a BACR for natural science. Our modern scientific view of the cosmos is a material universe obeying the laws of physics. This class explores the origins this view, covering the history, philosophy, physics, and astronomy behind it. The development is traced from classical Greece through the medieval Islamic world and the European Scientific Revolution into our modern understanding. The nonlinear and messy nature of this process is stressed, and key scientific, philosophical, religious, and cultural influences are examined.