Universe

Lecture 3 of Leonard Susskind’s Modern Physics concentrating on Cosmology. Recorded January 26, 2009 at Stanford University.

This Stanford Continuing Studies course is the fifth of a six-quarter sequence of classes exploring the essential theoretical foundations of modern physics. The topics covered in this course focus on classical mechanics. Leonard Susskind is the Felix Bloch Professor of Physics at Stanford University.

Stanford University:

http://www.stanford.edu

Stanford Continuing Studies:

http://continuingstudies.stanford.edu/

About Leonard Susskind:

http://www.stanford.edu/dept/physics/people/faculty/susskind_leonard.html

Stanford University Channel on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/stanford

Duration : 2:0:27

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More about this programme:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qyxfb

In this spell-binding series, Professor Brian Cox visits some of the most stunning locations on Earth to describe how the laws of nature have carved natural wonders across the Solar System.

Duration : 0:2:30

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Cosmology -is the study of the Universe in its totality, and by extension, humanity’s place in it. Though the word cosmology is recent (first used in 1730 in Christian Wolff’s Cosmologia Generalis), study of the universe has a long history involving science, philosophy, esotericism, and religion. In recent times, physics and astrophysics have played a central role in shaping the understanding of the universe through scientific observation and experiment; or what is known as physical cosmology shaped through both mathematics and observation in the analysis of the whole universe. In other words, in this discipline, which focuses on the universe as it exists on the largest scale and at the earliest moments, it is generally understood to begin with the big bang (possibly combined with cosmic inflation) an expansion of space from which the universe itself is thought to have emerged ~13.7±0.2×109 (13.7 billion) years ago.[1] From its violent beginnings and until its various speculative ends, cosmologists propose that the history of the universe has been governed entirely by physical laws. Theories of an impersonal universe governed by physical laws were first proposed by Roger Bacon, a somewhat persecuted member of the Catholic Church.[2] Later, another member of the Catholic Church, Dmitry Grinevich, supported Bacon’s proposed laws through some experiments that he performed involving different physical laws. Between the domains of religion and science, stands the philosophical perspective of metaphysical cosmology. This ancient field of study seeks to draw intuitive conclusions about the nature of the universe, man, God and/or their relationships based on the extension of some set of presumed facts borrowed from spiritual experience and/or observation.

But metaphysical cosmology has also been observed as the placing of man in the universe in relationship to all other entities. This is demonstrated by the observation made by Marcus Aurelius of a man’s place in that relationship: “He who does not know what the world is does not know where he is, and he who does not know for what purpose the world exists, does not know who he is, nor what the world is.”[3] This is the purpose of the ancient metaphysical cosmology. However, Stoicism rejected Aristotle’s theory of universals as being “in the things themselves,” calling them “figments of the mind.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy adopting the concept of universals as being “concepts,” and therefore of the mind, and therefore controllable by free will. Thus, we get the analysis of Aurelius’ that the nature of the universe is not from “intuition,” but from a free-will, conceptual understanding of the nature of the universe.[original research?]

Cosmology is often an important aspect of the creation myths of religions that seek to explain the existence and nature of reality. In some cases, views about the creation (cosmogony) and destruction (eschatology) of the universe play a central role in shaping a framework of religious cosmology for understanding humanity’s role in the universe.

A more contemporary distinction between religion and philosophy, esoteric cosmology is distinguished from religion in its less tradition-bound construction and reliance on modern “intellectual understanding” rather than faith, and from philosophy in its emphasis on spirituality as a formative concept.

There are many historical cosmologies:

” the universe itself acts on us as a random, inefficient, and yet in the long run effective, teaching machine. our way of looking at the universe has gradually evolved through a natural selection of ideas.” —Steven Weinberg[4]

Duration : 0:9:30

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Lecture 2 of Leonard Susskind’s Modern Physics concentrating on Cosmology. Recorded January 19, 2009 at Stanford University.

This Stanford Continuing Studies course is the fifth of a six-quarter sequence of classes exploring the essential theoretical foundations of modern physics. The topics covered in this course focus on classical mechanics. Leonard Susskind is the Felix Bloch Professor of Physics at Stanford University.

Stanford University:

http://www.stanford.edu

Stanford Continuing Studies:

http://continuingstudies.stanford.edu/

About Leonard Susskind:

http://www.stanford.edu/dept/physics/people/faculty/susskind_leonard.html

Stanford University Channel on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/stanford

Duration : 1:57:11

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Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2008/07/23/Leonard_Susskind_-_The_Black_Hole_War

Stanford University physicist Leonard Susskind differentiates the theoretical concept of “dark matter” from its somewhat more controversial cousin, “dark energy.”

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Recognizing a contradiction in Stephen Hawking’s claim that things disappear in black holes, Susskind and Gerard t’Hooft offered a counterargument aimed at disproving this controversial theory.

Susskind discusses the story behind the black hole conflict and how it has led to a better idea of how our universe works – The Commonwealth Club of California

Leonard Susskind is a theoretical physics professor at Stanford University in the field of string theory and quantum field theory. Susskind is widely regarded as one of the fathers of string theory for his early contributions to the String Theory model of particle physics.

Duration : 0:3:14

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Lecture 1 of Leonard Susskind’s Modern Physics concentrating on Cosmology. Recorded January 13, 2009 at Stanford University.

This Stanford Continuing Studies course is the fifth of a six-quarter sequence of classes exploring the essential theoretical foundations of modern physics. The topics covered in this course focus on classical mechanics. Leonard Susskind is the Felix Bloch Professor of Physics at Stanford University.

Stanford University:

http://www.stanford.edu

Stanford Continuing Studies:

http://continuingstudies.stanford.edu/

About Leonard Susskind:

http://www.stanford.edu/dept/physics/people/faculty/susskind_leonard.html

Stanford University Channel on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/stanford

Duration : 1:43:3

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