Astrophysics Minor for Aerospace Engineering Majors - Coursework & Difficulty

[physicsCU]

I am an aerospace engineering major.

Does anyone have any thoughts on how that would work? Course work involved, how hard it is?

Thanks!

 

[SpaceTiger]

I am an aerospace engineering major.

Does anyone have any thoughts on how that would work? Course work involved, how hard it is?

Where I went there was no option for an astrophysics minor, so I'm not sure what it would entail. I suspect, however, that your aerospace training would give you a lot of the necessary background in math and physics. In the absence of any other information, I'd say go for it, but I don't have a lot to go with here.

 

[Poop-Loops]

Isn't astrophysics just a specialization of physics? So wouldn't you have to go to Grad School and get a ph.d. specifically in astrophysics?

PL

 

[neurocomp2003]

since i graduated with a degree in Honours Neural Computation & Minor in Astrophysics I may be able to help...I took it at McMaster which has some premier researchers in the field.

Lets see there were 8 courses in total(2 first year...so hopefully you'll have 6 electives)
the 2 most important courses would be
[0] stellar structures(how a star evolves and the "star map" can't remember the name but it describes the evolution of the star path...oh hell i have the book infront of me..main sequence table..>REALLLY COOL
and
[1] Cosmology the study of evolution of galaxies and multistar systems ..nebulas,blackholes, physics metric systems ...sorry its be quite a long time so i don't remeber those systesm...blah blah...

THE WONDERFUL TEXT I USED WAS ostlie and carrolls so you may just want to buy it and screw taking the minor...but anyways the other 4 courses, all
2year courses in thermo...E&M...analytical mechanics...shoot can't remmeber the last one...oh some type of modern physics course(ie quantum/statistical mechanics)

..since your in the aerospace programme i assume you've taken thermo and E&M.

SO you'll only need 4 courses(unless they want a total of 8...so check out the number of electives)
[0]Stellar structures
[1]Cosmology
[2]Modern physics
[3]Analytical mechanics
OH and i forgot the 1st year astronomy course may be requirement

ALSO some programmes may require a planetary course.

As for the coursework...easy as pie...well the way Dr.Pudritz taught both class..highly interesting(i wrote a project paper on wormholes) and mathematically technical...but pretty easy. Guess it depends on your grade goal i got B+ and A in the two astrophysics course. Mostly you do math describe reactions and processes.

All else fails just take the astrophysics courses if you ahve the prerequistes..thats what i did(by permission of the prof) then i took the other ones after.
best

 

[SpaceTiger]

THE WONDERFUL TEXT I USED WAS ostlie and carrolls

I've never read Ostlie & Carroll, but Carroll & Ostlie is an excellent book. Here's a web page for the two:

http://departments.weber.edu/astrophysics/

Isn't astrophysics just a specialization of physics? So wouldn't you have to go to Grad School and get a ph.d. specifically in astrophysics?

This is true in some schools, but many offer an undergrad major (or even minor) in astrophysics.

 

[neurocomp2003]

SpaceTiger: heh what's the difference between ostlie & carroll and carroll & Ostlie! NOTHING hehe...i miss ordered the authors but meh its still the same book...

bah never mind I just saw the link and there are two books with different orders of the author. But they are the same 1/2 content on Stellar physics. The blue book has only the stellar chapters while the ORANGE book has both the stellar adn cosmo(galactic evolution stuff)...

i have the orange book and i love it for its light reading(the paragraphs) but extensive technical math stuff. Its a beautifucl book I'm glad Dr. Pudritz made me by it.

 

[SpaceTiger]

i have the orange book and i love it for its light reading(the paragraphs) but extensive technical math stuff. Its a beautifucl book I'm glad Dr. Pudritz made me by it.

BOB (Big Orange Book) is famed amongst astronomy undergrads. I learned a large fraction of my basic astronomy from there.