Recitation topics, by week
(Times and locations of recitations live on the Contact page.)

The week of...	Topics
30 August 2009	No recitations
6 September 2009	VIDEO VIEWING: Powers of Ten and South Park "Fourth Grade" Homework 1: practice on unit conversion; discussion of rates (luminosity, speed, etc.)
13 September 2009	VIDEO VIEWING: The Actress explains the theory of relativity to The Professor (from Insignificance, 1985); Bad Astrophysics video clips (from Superman, 1978 and Star Trek IV, 1986) involving time dilation and time travel. Also the Twin Paradox (optionally).
20 September 2009	Homework 2: practice with length contraction, time dilation, velocity addition; discussion of concept of reference frames, and the postulates of the special theory of relativity. Also the Twin Paradox, if not covered last week.
27 September 2009	VIDEO VIEWING: Bad Astrophysics video clips Homework 2: practice on use of the Minkowski absolute interval.
4 October 2009	VIDEO VIEWING: Bad Astrophysics video clips
11 October 2009	Homework 3: degeneracy pressure; relativity of mass; sizes of black holes, white dwarfs and neutron stars. VIDEO VIEWING: Nova's Death Of A Star.
18 October 2009	VIDEO VIEWING: Disney's The Black Hole (selections) Homework 4: energy/mass equivalence, energetics of black holes.
25 October 2009	VIDEO VIEWING: Disney's The Black Hole (selections) Homework 4: practice with Doppler effect calculations
1 November 2009	Exam review: observational signatures of black holes, calculations involving energy and luminosity of black holes.
8 November 2009	Homework 5: discussion of entropy, Horizon Area theorem, Hawking radiation.
15 November 2009	VIDEO VIEWING: Star Trek: Deep Space 9, episode 1 Homework 5: discussion of the insides of black holes, nature of the singularity, and the role of metaphysics in science; wormholes.
22 November 2009	Thanksgiving Break.
29 November 2009	VIDEO VIEWING: Disney's The Black Hole (selections) Homework #6: Hubble's Law, models of the Universe
6 December 2009	Exam review: cosmology