Astrophysics

Alpha Star wrote:

A few days ago in science class my teacher said the for astronomy i
will need to be good at Astrophysics. I'm not sure what astrophysics
are though, like if they are the same as ordinary physics?
Does anyone know any good sites, books or people i can go to show or
teach me Astrophysics?
THANKS
SARA - Emmanuel Anglican College

Well, you certainly need to be comfortable with physics and
mathematics. At UF astronomy majors take:
Classical Mechanics 1&2, Electricity & Magnetism 1&2, Modern
Physics, Thermal Physics, Quantum Mechanics in the physics
department as well as Calculus 1/2/3, Differential Equations,
programing (either C++ or FORTRAN).

Astrophysics is simply physics as specifically applied to
astronomical situations.

In article wXl3b.30592$xf.21585@lakeread06,
John Oliver wrote:

Astrophysics is simply physics as specifically applied to
astronomical situations.

Not quite.....

Celestial Mechanics is physics (Newtonian mechanics or, if you want
the highest possible precision, General Relativity) applied to the
situation of a (reasonable) number of masses orbiting one another.
Yet, Celestial Mechanics is considered to be "Classical Astronomy"
rather than "Astrophysics".

In astrophysics you deal mostly with Quantum Mechanics, Radiative
Transfer and stuff like that.

Astrophysics was born when spectroscopy was born. Before spectroscopy,
it was considered impossible to figure out "what stars are made of".


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