# Scaling Factor, Hubble's Parameter, and the Age of the Universe

In this lesson, we'll introduce three concepts which are essential to cosmology: the scaling factor, Hubble's parameter, and Hubble's law. The scaling factor allows us to define the distance between galaxies as a function of time. Hubble's law, which was deduced from measurements made by the astronomer Edwin Hubble, demonstrates that the distance $$D$$ between galaxies is proportional to their recessional speed $$V$$ away from us; in other words, the farther away from us a galaxy is, the faster it is moving away from us. Hubble deduced that $$D∝V$$ by taking numerous measurement of the distances $$D$$ of speeds $$V$$ of many other galaxies, plotting the measurements on a graph, and then realizing that the line of regression passing through all of the points should be a straight line. The slope of this line, today, is known as Hubble's constant; but the ratio $$D/V$$ is not constant with time. The slope of $$D(V)$$ vs. $$V$$ as a function of time is known as Hubble's parameter. We'll also show in this lesson that we can use Hubble's parameter and Hubble's law to estimate the age of the universe to be ~14 billion years old. This estimate, however, is a little off. The correct answer is actually 13.8 billion years old.

# Inelastic Collisions

In this lesson, we'll apply the principle of momentum conservation to analyze inelastic collisions which is when objects collide and "stick" together moving away as a single composite mass. We'll see that the conservation of momentum allows us to predict the motion after such a collision has occurred.

# Introduction to Mechanical Waves

In this section, we discuss the various different kinds of mechanical waves: transverse, longitudinal, and some waves which have both of those aspects. Mechanical waves are disturbances which propagate through a medium and transport energy from one region of space to another. In this section, we'll start off with a qualitative description of what mechanical waves.

# Rotational Kinematics

There are many different ways to describe rotational motion, but the most convenient way of doing so is to replace the role played by the position vector in linear motion with an angular coordinate. This will give us a way of describing the rotational motion of rigid bodies where we do not have to worry about the individual positions of every particle.

# Introduction to Rotational Kinetic Energy

Rotational kinetic energy is not a new concept: it is just the sum of all the translational kinetic energies of all the particles comprising a system. Just like how translational kinetic energy is a very important concept in simplifying many problems related to linear motion, the same is true of rotational kinetic energy for rotational motion. Very often, in complicated situations, it is much simpler to use energy concepts than concepts related to force or torque.

# Torque

We'll see that torque, rotational inertia and rotational acceleration play the same role in rotational mechanics as force, mass, and linear acceleration play in linear motion. Torque is, roughly speaking, how good of a job a given applied force will do at changing the, otherwise, uniform rotational motion; rotational inertia is how much an object resists having its rotational motion changed; and rotational acceleration captures how much the rotational motion is changing from its state of uniform rotational motion. In this section, we'll spend a lot of time focusing on developing a qualitative understanding of torque. We shall also quantify torque and derive the rotational analogue of Newton's second law.

# Work: Measure of Energy Transfer

What is work? Work is a measure of how much total energy is transferred into or out of an object. In this lesson we'll see that by calculating the work done on an object (how much energy is transferred into or out of it), we can predict the object's future state of motion.

# The Dependency of theta in the dot product

In this lesson, we'll discuss how the total work $$W$$ on an object depends on the angle $$\theta$$ at which the force $$\vec{F}$$ is applied to the object.

# Work done by Earth's Gravity

What happens if the only effect of the work done on an object is to change its height without changing its speed? The answer is that the work done on the object only changes in potential energy. In this lesson, we'll consider the work done by Earth's gravity on an object whose height above the ground changes but whose speed stays the same.

# Work-Kinetic Energy Theorem

Work is energy transfer. But what happens when work is done on an object such that its height above the ground doesn't change? The answer is that only kinetic energy is transferred into or out of the object. And since work is the total amount of energy transfered into or out of the object, it therefore follows that the work is just equal to the object's change in kinetic energy.