Coming Up: Pi Day, Einstein’s Birthday, and Dawn at Ceres

Saturday, March 14, 2015 is “pi day” – the only day this century that includes the first five digits of pi or 3.1415…   This year, several groups are suggesting that this might be a good day for celebrating math and science in general – and raising our voices in favor of evidence-based, well-reasoned decisions in our public life.  It’s a time we can share with others our conviction that evolution is well-established fact, that climate change is being accelerated by human activities, and that NASA did indeed land people on the Moon – all ideas being denied on the web, in the media, and in our political discourse.

March 14^th is also Albert Einstein’s birthday (he was born in 1879 on that day.)  This year, we celebrate the 100^th anniversary of Einstein’s first paper on the General Theory of Relativity, the brilliant insight that connects gravity, light, space and time.  This anniversary is part of a larger physics commemoration – celebrating 2015 as the International Year of Light.  At Foothill College, I will be offering my evening Physics 12 class (Physics for Poets), all about Einstein’s life and work, explained without math.  It ends with recent contributions to our understanding of the universe by Stephen Hawking (whom I was pleased to see getting the Academy Award for best actor :-)) 

We can also celebrate the big development in the solar system: The Dawn Spacecraft just went into orbit around the largest asteroid in the asteroid belt, Ceres, which, by virtue of its size and round-ness, also qualifies as the first dwarf planet to have been discovered (in 1801).  Dawn is the first spacecraft ever to orbit two worlds on the same mission, thanks to its advanced ion-propulsion technology.  (It orbited the second largest asteroid Vesta, from 2011 to 2012 and then made its way across 900 million miles of space to Ceres.)  We are expecting remarkable close-up images of and data from Ceres as the year goes on and Dawn achieves closer and closer orbit. Stay tuned.

For the latest on the Dawn mission, see the blog by Mission Director Marc Rayman: http://dawnblog.jpl.nasa.gov/ 

For a syllabus of my Physics 12 (Einstein) class, see: www.foothill.edu/physics/Physics.12.Web.pdf

For a guide to resources for answering conspiracy-theory "true believers", go to: http://www.astrosociety.org/education/astronomy-resource-guides/astronomical-pseudo-science-a-skeptics-resource-list/ 

Painting of the Dawn Spacecraft Near Ceres (NASA)

Happy Belated Einstein's Birthday (Get Ready for Spring)

Yesterday was Albert Einstein's birthday and this coming Thursday will be the Spring Equinox, when the length of the day and the length of the night are roughly equal, and we move from winter to spring in the Earth's northern hemisphere. This is always a good time of year to think fresh thoughts, something Einstein was especially good at.

At Foothill College, where I have the privilege of teaching, this is the week we begin registering students and community members for our spring quarter, which starts in April. This spring, I get to teach my evening Physics 12 class, nicknamed "Everything You've Wanted to Know about Einstein and his Work (without Math) but Were Afraid to Ask..."

If you, or someone you know, might be interested and are close enough to Los Altos, California to come to an evening class, I invite you to check it out.

Although Einstein died in 1955, his work continues to capture the imagination of both scientists and the public. In the last few years, astronomers have found new confirmation of some of Einstein’s most bizarre ideas -- including time itself slowing down under the right circumstances and gravity acting like the distorting mirrors of an amusement park. Huge black holes have been found, some of them having “eaten” enough material to make billions of Suns.

In the Physics 12 course, we explain all these ideas and discoveries in everyday language -- using analogies, visuals, and humor instead of math. Physics 12 will be offered on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6 to 8:30 pm, April 8 to June 24, 2014. Pre-registration is advised, but, if there is room, you can come hear the first lecture (room 5015) and then register if you like the approach. The class is held on the main campus of Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, just off Freeway 280. (For adults who don't need a grade, arrangements can be made, after you register, to take the course without the exams.)

For registration information for the Spring Quarter see:
http://www.foothill.edu/admissions.php

Physics 12 emphasizes key ideas that form the basis of our modern concepts of space, time, matter, and energy:
* The theory of how atoms work
* Energy, heat, and the arrow of time
* The special theory of relativity: what happens when you travel close to the speed of light
* The general theory of relativity: gravity, space-time warps, and black holes
* Quantum mechanics: the bizarre rules that govern the world inside the atom

In addition to examining the physics and physicists involved with these areas, the course also takes a brief look at the effects that such physics ideas have had on the humanities -- including poetry, fiction, music, and the public view of scientists. The quarter concludes the course with a non-technical introduction to the work of Stephen Hawking, whose innovative ideas combine these areas and take some of Einstein's ideas to the outermost limits of cosmic possibility.

For a course syllabus in pdf format, see:www.foothill.edu/physics/Physics.12.Web.pdf