Moderne sterrenkunde (honours)
3 EC
Semester 2, period 4
5092MOST3Y
| Owner | Bachelor Natuur- en Sterrenkunde (joint degree) |
| Coordinator | prof. dr. Ralph Wijers |
| Part of | Bachelor Physics and Astronomy (Joint Degree), year 1 |
This course elaborates on the physical implications and the theoretical background of a number of interesting and topical issues ('hot topics') in astronomy. Examples of topics include the search for Earth-like planets and life, apparently faster than light travel, supermassive stars, gravitational lenses, the nature of dark matter, the expanding universe.
The topics covered will vary based on the teacher and recent developments in the field, such as new fundamental breakthroughs that lend themselves to discussion. Each week will have 1 lecture and 1 tutorial session of 2 contact hours each. Active participation and discussion, particularly in the tutorials, will be part of the assessment.
The 2026 course will be rather different. It will focus on a very general skill that is useful to all natural scientists and turns out to be one of the most important skills you need when working in sincere, and are respected for almost as if you are a magician if your job after your degree or even PhD is outside science: QUANTITATIVE ESTIMATION. Many if not most people have no idea how big/small/much/little things are approximately, other than looking it up in a book. But as a natural scientist you learn how to relate things quantitatively, without usually realising how broadly applicable that skill is. In this course, we will use some physics laws and especially quantitative common sense to discover that almost everything can be judged quantitatively at least to order of magnitude.
This will include things that are fairly physical, like what is the size of a flute or how thick does the concrete wall of a building need to be to hold it up, or how tall can a mountain on Earth be (or on any planet or moon?). But also purely societal things, such as how many elementary school teachers are there in the Netherlands or how many doctors? It will culminate in so-called 'Fermi problems' where you guesstimate things that seem almost impossible to quantify. They are named after Enrico Fermi, who escaped Mussolini to Chicago, and the original problem is "How many piano tuners are there in Chicago?". If you are not already convinced that this is a useful skill, I am willing to lay a bet that by the end of the course you will be.
Keynote/pdf lecture notes and presentations
Various articles, videos and websites for reference
Each of 7 weeks there will be a morning block and an afternoon block on the same day. The morning block is primarily a lecture, where the basic ideas and required knowledge of a given topic will be presented and explained, but intertwined with some brief problem-solving times to get the hang of the type of problem solving under discussion from simple examples. The afternoon block is primarily devoted to problem solving, occasionally with some further lecture/explanation. About half the time you will work on problems that are then immediately explained, and about half the time is devoted to explaining the solutions to problems you have done as homework.
Activity | Hours | |
Self study | 84 | |
Total | 84 | (3 EC x 28 uur) |
Programme's requirements concerning attendance (TER-B):
Additional requirements for this course:
Students are expected to participate actively in the course to learn the skills and show a certain motivation. Participation will not be registered and thus is not strictly compulsory, but is expected to be necessary to pass the course just from the perspective of learning enough.
| Item and weight | Details |
|
Final grade | |
|
50% Essay solving a chosen problem | Must be ≥ 5, Mandatory |
|
50% Presentation of a different problem and solution | Must be ≥ 5, Mandatory |
The presentation cannot be redone, but there will eb a retake for the essay if needed
Communication of grades and inspection of the graded work by the students will be done at a common time for all students and announced via email and canvas
[]The essay will be written during a class time block and without internet access, to ensure that it is the individual and original work of each student. For the presentation, the students will work alone or in groups of 2, depending on the number. For its preparation and investigation, internet usage is allowed and even encouraged.
The 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' applies to this course. This will be monitored carefully. Upon suspicion of fraud or plagiarism the Examinations Board of the programme will be informed. For the 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' see: www.student.uva.nl
| Weeknummer | Onderwerpen | Studiestof |
| 1 | General introduction and background | |
| 2 | Populations and numbers | |
| 3 | Materials, buildings, constructions | |
| 4 | Energy, food, and the like | |
| 5 | Mountains, rivers, nature | |
| 6 | Planets, stars, universe | |
| 7 | Fermi problems and broader issues | |
| 8 | Presentations |
This course is intended for honours students and those with a special interest. It is faculty-wide, so no specific prior courses in astronomy or physics are expected or required in order to be able to take the course
Teaching Assistant: Ms. Selah Melfor