Introduction to Philosophy – Week 2 (The Pre-Socratics)

The main topic this week were the Pre-Socratic philosophers. In particular we talked about Thales, Parmenides, Heraclitus and Democritus. The pre-socratics were framework breakers. They invented a whole new way of thinking.  Framework breakers ask open questions, not closed questions. Why does the sun move across the sky? Instead of, which God makes the sun …

Astronomical Concepts – Week 8 (Final)

For this final week of the course the focus was cosmology. The main topics of learning we looked at included: Galaxies Quasars Dark matter Dark energy The Big Bang Theory Gravity Expansion of the universe and inflation Galaxies There are three main types of galaxy: spiral, elliptical and irregular. Our Milky Way galaxy is a …

Astronomical Concepts – Week 7

This week - special relativity. We started with the two main axioms of special relativity: The laws of physics are the same in all inertial frames of reference The speed of light is constant (299,792,458 m/s) Tonight we had to imagine we were floating through space in a spaceship. Are we stationary or are we …

Astronomical Concepts – Week 6

This weeks topic was the stars. Their are billions of stars in our galaxy and there are billions of galaxies in the universe. There is an unbelievably huge amount of stars out there and the stars are separated by huge distances. How do we measure the distances to the stars? The closest star to Earth …

Astronomical Concepts – Week 5

The main topic this week was the Sun. Here are a few facts about the sun: It is a hot ball of glowing gas It is a yellow dwarf, main sequence star Approx. 150 million km from Earth (this distance is known as 1 astronomical unit (AU)) Formed 4.5 billion years ago Formed from a …

Astronomical Concepts – Week 4

This week's main topic was light. James Maxwell James Maxwell was a Scottish scientist who lived from 1831 to 1879. He is well known for the research he did on electromagnetism and light, building on the work of Michael Faraday. He produced a set of equations that explain the properties of magnetic and electric fields …

Astronomical Concepts – Week 3

The main theme of this week's session was the outer part of our solar system. This includes: Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto Asteroids Comets Oort Cloud Kuiper Belt Oort Cloud This has never been directly observed but it is believed to exist and it is an area of space on the edge of our solar …

Astronomical Concepts – Week 2

The main topics this week were the solar system, gravity and the tidal effect. I have previously written on my blog about the solar system so for this entry I will just write about gravity and the tidal effect. The two main theories of gravity come from Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein, both are used …

Astronomical Concepts – Week 1 Introduction

Thursday 13th October was the first week of my new astronomy course at Sydney Observatory. Like the first course I attended earlier this year it is presented by Dr Paul Payne. This course aims to expand on the first and build on some of the main concepts of astronomy, including the solar system, gravity, the …

Innovation Lecture 2016 – Marita Cheng

On Wednesday September 14th I attended the Warren Centre Innovation Lecture 2016. This year's speaker was Marita Cheng, founder of RoboGals and the 2012 Young Australian of the Year. This was the second time I have seen Marita speak, the first time being earlier this year at the Future Schools Expo in Sydney. Marita is …