This is a laboratory course supplemented by lectures that focus on selected analytical facilities that are commonly used to determine the mineralogy, elemental abundance and isotopic ratios of Sr and Pb in rocks, soils, sediments and water.

This presentation offers an overview of the developing concept of The Anthropocene -- a term coined to describe our current geological epoch, in which human impact on the planet will leave a permanent trace.

Practical applications of the continuum concept for deformation of solids and fluids, emphasizing force balance. Stress tensor, infinitesimal and finite strain, and rotation tensors developed. Constitutive relations applicable to geological materials, including elastic, viscous, brittle, and plastic deformation. Solutions to classical problems in geodynamics.

Laszlo Tisza was Professor of Physics Emeritus at MIT, where he began teaching in 1941. This online publication is a reproduction the original lecture notes for the course "Applied Geometric Algebra" taught by Professor Tisza in the Spring of 1976. Over the last 100 years, the mathematical tools employed by physicists have expanded considerably, from differential calculus, vector algebra and geometry, to advanced linear algebra, tensors, Hilbert space, spinors, Group theory and many others. These sophisticated tools provide powerful machinery for describing the physical world, however, their physical interpretation is often not intuitive. These course notes represent Prof. Tisza's attempt at bringing conceptual clarity and unity to the application and interpretation of these advanced mathematical tools. In particular, there is an emphasis on the unifying role that Group theory plays in classical, relativistic, and quantum physics. Prof. Tisza revisits many elementary problems with an advanced treatment in order to help develop the geometrical intuition for the algebraic machinery that may carry over to more advanced problems. The lecture notes came to MIT OpenCourseWare by way of Samuel Gasster, '77 (Course 18), who had taken the course and kept a copy of the lecture notes for his own reference. He dedicated dozens of hours of his own time to convert the typewritten notes into LaTeX files and then publication-ready PDFs. You can read about his motivation for wanting to see these notes published in his Preface below. Professor Tisza kindly gave his permission to make these notes available on MIT OpenCourseWare.

Students, particularly those who are non-science majors, often struggle with college-level science courses required for graduation due to the applied mathematics needed to successfully complete the course. This resource includes four activities on the topics of units and measurements, dimensional analysis, density, and gases. These topics were specifically designed to teach the mathematics embedded in these topics in a culturally responsive way. Throughout the activities, we incorporate these four elements of culturally relevant pedagogy (Ladson-Billings, 2009) in order to engage students in successfully solving basic mathematics in chemistry while promoting their interest in learning chemistry.

Fundamentals of nuclear physics for engineering students. Basic properties of the nucleus and nuclear radiations. Elementary quantum mechanical calculations of bound-state energies and barrier transmission probability. Binding energy and nuclear stability. Interactions of charged particles, neutrons, and gamma rays with matter. Radioactive decays. Energetics and general cross-section behavior in nuclear reactions.

This course details the quantitative treatment of chemical processes in aquatic systems such as lakes, oceans, rivers, estuaries, groundwaters, and wastewaters. It includes a brief review of chemical thermodynamics that is followed by discussion of acid-base, precipitation-dissolution, coordination, and reduction-oxidation reactions. Emphasis is on equilibrium calculations as a tool for understanding the variables that govern the chemical composition of aquatic systems and the fate of inorganic pollutants.

This two week assignment asks students to interpret and analyze the 1974 Arecibo Message sent by Drake and Sagan. Week 1 introduces the concepts behind the construction of the message and engages with a critical analysis of the architecture and the contents of the message. Week 2 asks students to develop software in a Jupyter Notebook (available for free from the Anaconda Python Distribution) to interpret messages that were similar to those produced by Drake and Sagan.

Grade level: graduate students, advanced undergrads, persons with analyzed research results

Course length: 1 semester, 4-6 months

Objective: This course empowers scientists to engage with their own data, each other, and the public through art. Through collective brainstorming, prototyping, and feedback from professional artists, students will create a project that expresses their own research through any artistic medium of their choice. The course typically culminates in a public art exhibition where students interact with a general audience to discuss their research, art, and what it means to be a scientist.

Astrobiology Survey is an introductory course on astrobiology. It takes a multi-disciplinary approach that unites the sciences and arts to study the three questions of "How does life begin and evolve?", "Does life exist elsewhere in the universe?" and "What is the future of life on Earth and beyond?"

" This course covers the fundamentals of astrodynamics, focusing on the two-body orbital initial-value and boundary-value problems with applications to space vehicle navigation and guidance for lunar and planetary missions, including both powered flight and midcourse maneuvers. Other topics include celestial mechanics, Kepler's problem, Lambert's problem, orbit determination, multi-body methods, mission planning, and recursive algorithms for space navigation. Selected applications from the Apollo, Space Shuttle, and Mars exploration programs are also discussed."

Astronomy is designed to meet the scope and sequence requirements of one- or two-semester introductory astronomy courses. The book begins with relevant scientific fundamentals and progresses through an exploration of the solar system, stars, galaxies, and cosmology. The Astronomy textbook builds student understanding through the use of relevant analogies, clear and non-technical explanations, and rich illustrations. Mathematics is included in a flexible manner to meet the needs of individual instructors.

Welcome to Astronomy 141. Through this course you’ll have an understanding of the sky, Earth, Moon and the Sun, the solar system and the universe. This laboratory course introduces the fundamentals of astronomy such as: the apparent motion of the sky, Sun, Moon and planets; the nature of light; gravity; the properties of planets; the life cycles of stars; and the structure of the universe. Laboratory and computer exercises will be used, and we will conduct one nighttime lab.

As the learning outcomes, students who succeed in this course may eventually respond to:

How does the process of science work, and how does that process manifest itself in astronomy?
How is astronomy of practical use? How has astronomy impacted our understanding of our world?
What is a planet, and how are planets similar to—and different from—one another?
What is the interior of the Earth like, and how do we know?
What is a star? How are the stars similar to and different from one another?
How did the universe get started? What is likely to happen to the universe in the distant future?
[This project was created as part of the Open Pedagogy Fellowship at the Mina Rees Library, The Graduate Center].

Read more about the course design here: https://gclibrary.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2020/10/19/inclusive-education-and-research-for-astronomy/

Intended for all audiences, this textbook is an introduction to the nature of the universe. Use it to research or review our solar system, stars, galaxies, and the history of the universe. Each chapter has a set of corresponding homework questions.

Galactic dynamics: potential theory, orbits, collisionless Boltzmann equation, etc. Galaxy interactions. Groups and clusters; dark matter. Intergalactic medium; x-ray clusters. Active galactic nuclei: unified models, black hole accretion, radio and optical jets, etc. Homogeneity and isotropy, redshift, galaxy distance ladder. Newtonian cosmology. Roberston-Walker models and cosmography. Early universe, primordial nucleosynthesis, recombination. Cosmic microwave background radiation. Large-scale structure, galaxy formation.

Size and time scales. Historical astronomy. Astronomical instrumentation. Stars: spectra and classification. Stellar structure equations and survey of stellar evolution. Stellar oscillations. Degenerate and collapsed stars; radio pulsars. Interacting binary systems; accretion disks, x-ray sources. Gravitational lenses; dark matter. Interstellar medium: HII regions, supernova remnants, molecular clouds, dust; radiative transfer; Jeans' mass; star formation. High-energy astrophysics: Compton scattering, bremsstrahlung, synchrotron radiation, cosmic rays. Galactic stellar distributions and populations; Oort constants; Oort limit; and globular clusters.

"This undergraduate class is designed to introduce students to the physics that govern the circulation of the ocean and atmosphere. The focus of the course is on the processes that control the climate of the planet.AcknowledgmentsProf. Ferrari wishes to acknowledge that this course was originally designed and taught by Prof. John Marshall."

This course explores the physical processes that control Earth's atmosphere, ocean, and climate. Quantitative methods for constructing mass and energy budgets. Topics include clouds, rain, severe storms, regional climate, the ozone layer, air pollution, ocean currents and productivity, the seasons, El Ni–o, the history of Earth's climate, global warming, energy, and water resources.

This course provides an introduction to the physics and chemistry of the atmosphere, including experience with computer codes. It is intended for undergraduates and first year graduate students.

Introduction to the physics of atmospheric radiation and remote sensing including use of computer codes. Radiative transfer equation including emission and scattering, spectroscopy, Mie theory, and numerical solutions. Solution of inverse problems in remote sensing of atmospheric temperature and composition.