Space-time, relativity, and cosmology

Acknowledgments

1. The scientific method

Motivation

Brief history

Science's approach to knowledge

Notes

2. From antiquity to Aristotle

Creation myths : the dawn of cosmology

From Aristotle to Ptolemy

Greek science

Appendix : a creation myth pot pourri

Notes

3. From the Middle Ages to heliocentrism

The look of the time

The thought of the time

the magic of the time

The science of the time

The heliocentric revolution

Kepler

Notes

4. Galileo and Newton

The scientific environment

Galileo Galilei

Isaac Newton

Appendix : Galileo and the Inquisition

Notes

5. The clouds gather

Electricity and magnetism

Waves vs. particles

Light

Problems

Prelude to relativity

Notes

6. The special theory of relativity

Introduction

Enter Einstein

Notes

7. The general theory of relativity

The happiest thought of my life

Gravitation vs. acceleration

Light

Gravitation and energy

Gravity and space

The warping of time

The Einstein equations

Black holes

Waves

Tests of general relativity

Notes

8. The relativistic universe

Introduction

The universe at a glance

The relativistic universe

Hubble's result : the Big Bang Theory

Puzzles and challenges

Quo vadis?

Appendix : measuring the universe

Notes

9. The lives of a star

Introduction

Pressure

Stellar power

The lives of a star

Notes

Bibliography

Index.