As taught in：Fall 2004
Instructors：Prof. Nergis Mavalvala(Recitations)
Prof. Walter Lewin
Prof. Wolfgang Ketterle(Recitations)
MIT Course Number：8.03
Level：Undergraduate
This is a picture of Prof. Lewin, taken by Prof. Lewin. It was the "Astronomy Picture of the Day" (APOD) on September 13, 2004. It was also presented to his 8.03 students as a challenge to obtain extra course credit if they were able to explain this phenomenon. On December 7, Prof. Lewin revealed the physics (and demonstrated it) in lecture 22. The solution was also revealed by APOD to the many thousands of people who were puzzled by it and who tried to explain it.
Course Description
In addition to the traditional topics of mechanical vibrations and waves, coupled oscillators, and electro-magnetic radiation, students will also learn about musical instruments, red sunsets, glories, coronae, rainbows, haloes, X-ray binaries, neutron stars, black holes and big-bang cosmology.