1. Concepts from Modern Physics

2. Relativity We experience space in 4 dimensions (but we’re now pretty sure there’s more of them). We can’t go faster than the speed of light. E=mc 2 (matter can become energy and vice versa) Time Dilation (moving clocks run slower) Non-euclidian geometry Warped spacetime -- what is gravity anyway?

3. Quantum Mechanics Schrodinger’s cat (observing affects the experiment) The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle -- who says you can really know where something is? Philosophy of physics: –Does god play dice with the universe? –Summing histories can predict the future –What happens to causality?

4. Cosmology Hubble’s law -- the further away a galaxy, the faster it appears to be moving away from us. Where is the center of the universe? Cosmic background radiation -- relic of the big bang? What was the big bang? If you can look back in time with a telescope, why can’t we just look back to the beginning? Dark matter -- if you can’t see it, how do we know it’s there and who cares anyway? Mass and the ultimate fate of the universe