Astronomy and Space Sciences

CONTENTS OF CURRICULUM UNIT 05.04.09

  1. Unit Guide
  1. Introduction
  2. Rational for this module
  3. Goals of this module
  4. Synopsis of topics to be covered
  5. Topic 1 – Our Solar System's Planets Distances from the Sun or the Titus-Bode Calculation (to be used during the study of inferential statistics; typically, second half of a statistics course).
  6. Titus-Bode Law - Estimations of the mean distance from the sun using Earth as a unit of 1
  7. Topic 2 – Edwin Hubble and the expanding Universe (to be used after the principles of multiple regression have been studied).
  8. Bibliography
  9. On-line sources

The Use of Astronomy to Teach Statistical Concepts

Michael W. Vasileff

Published September 2005

Tools for this Unit:

On-line sources

http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/full/gif/seri/PASP./0108//0001074.000.html

(On page 2 of this site is a graph depicting the H 0 values over time. I found this most interesting. All science seems to improve with age and here is yet another example.)

http://astrosun2.astro.cornell.edu/academics/courses//astro201/bodes_law.htm

(An excellent descri8ptyion of Bode's law along with calculations and graphs.)

http://calculators.stat.ucla.edu/

(for those without a calculator or statistics program)

http://ciencies.udg.es/w3/EGarcia/humor.html

(a little bit of humor always helps)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

(This site is a listing of may galaxies and specific information about each one. It is very interesting and includes space photographs.)

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/astro/hubble.html

(If you want a graphic of the raisin bread analogy along with some calculations, this is a great site.)

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/astro/para.html

(Explains astronomical units of measure, Parallax or how we can tell the distance of stars, and gives examples of these measurements.)

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/

(This is the Goddard Space Flight Center web site. It contains a wealth of information about NASA and space in general. I highly recommend it as a general resource for any questions or just pleasure in learning about Astronomy.)

http://mathbits.com/MathBits/TISection/Statistics2/correlation.htm

(This is a secondary site for explanations about r ,R 2, correlation coefficient and other aspects of correlation. It might be a helpful aid in reading about these relationships from another source.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/02/0216_Pluto.html

(Published in 2001 discusses whether or not Pluto is a planet as it is mostly ice and only a fraction of the size of Earth)

http://software.isixsigma.com/st/hypothesis_testing/

(excellent anthology of statistical concepts explanations)

http://visualstatistics.net/index.html

(for those students who like a visual an audio presentation of basic statistics)

http://www.astro.lsa.umich.edu/Course/MMSS/neargal.html.

(This is a University of Michigan publication that shows the distances to nearby galaxies. There are graphs, sketches and actual space photos of the galaxies. It also includes an excellent description of the Hubble Law and associated calculations.)

http://www.astronomynotes.com/galaxy/s7.htm

(Discusses distances to the galaxies and gives an excellent description of red and blue shift.)

http://www.cs.csubak.edu/Physics/phys110/NotesCh16.html

(Hubble's major achievements of classification of galaxies, properties of galaxies, redshift discussion and Hubble's law are clearly explained.)

http://www.geocities.com/jurgenshestani/hubble.html?200514

(This is another set of measurements to calculate H 0 . I didn't use these numbers, but you may wish to include them or have the students work with them as another example.)

http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/H0kp/

(This is an index of galaxies which have been observed by the Hubble Telescope)

http://www.psychstat.smsu.edu/introbook/sbk00.htm

(a very complete on-line statistical text)

http://www.stat.yale.edu/Courses/1997-98/101/linreg.htm

(This Yale publication is an excellent discussion of linear regression. It also discusses least-square and residuals.)

http://www.supernovae.net/galmod.htm

(For anyone wanting a list of galaxies, this is the place to go.)

Unless otherwise noted, all science facts and information in this unit are taken and combined from Freedman (2005).

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