Essay 5

INSTRUCTIONS

It’s time for Essay 5 – on Cosmology, as promised. Essay 5 is worth 5% of your final grade and will be due in two weeks, i.e., by 2:10pm on Wednesday February 13th. Please write 5 pages of content, not including pictures. Your essay should be in the same style and format as before. I will expect you to reference between three and eight different sources.

QUESTION

Describe the cosmological story of our universe in terms of modern theoretical physics. Spend most of your discussion on the evolution of the universe (about 75%); spend the remainder (about 25%) on describing  possibilities for the origin and ultimate fate of our universe. Focus on creating a coherent “big picture” of Big Bang Cosmology as well as focusing on individual relevant facts.

You may draw upon any facts which you learned throughout the course so far, but the most useful and relevant lecture material is from the past two weeks – Cosmology notes from Weeks 15 and 16.

Note: I am deliberately allowing you some leeway in choosing which pieces of physics to emphasize in this essay. You have earned this privilege by now!  If you are in any doubt about what to emphasize, please use my Cosmology lecture notes as a guide. You will also find useful the set of cosmology links I posted last week.

Cheers,
Prof. P.