Please complete these questions in hardcopy or electronic format. They will be collected on the first day of the workshop.

Thought Questions:

Based on your reading and your background knowledge, please write short answers to the following questions.

• This first set is based on the advance reading, and you should be able to answer them based on the readings:

1. In the late 1800’s several major problems became apparent with Newton’s laws of physics. Please describe two of these problems and explain why they were considered problems.
2. Sometimes people wrongly say that Einstein showed that “everything is relative.” What is wrong with this statement? What things in relativity are relative, and what things are absolute?
3. What is Einstein’s 1907 “Principle of Equivalence”? What things are equivalent according to this principle? Why was this principle important to the development of relativity?
4. Please explain, in basic terms, the most important difference between special and general relativity. What kinds of situations can be treated by general relativity but not special relativity?
5. Describe the concept of “tidal gravity.” Why was the existence of tidal gravity considered a problem for the Principle of Equivalence? How did Einstein ultimately reinterpret tidal gravity?

• Questions that will be covered in more detail during the course. For these questions please answer to the best of your ability prior to the course, but do not research your answers heavily. These topics will be covered during the workshop:

1. What are the key forces that control the basic properties of any star? How are these forces different for a normal, fusion-powered star and a degenerate star? What types of degenerate stars exist, and what types of degeneracy pressure support them?
2. Please explain two of the methods by which people have discovered stellar-mass black holes in our Galaxy. Roughly how many stellar-mass black holes have been found and studied in our Galaxy? Are there likely to be more that we have not yet found and studied
3. Describe an accretion disk around a black hole. What forces or effects shape its basic properties? What key things happen in the accretion disk that (1) make it visible at great distances and (2) allow matter to fall into the black hole?
4. People have taken optical spectra of active galactic nuclei to help determine what is going on in these nuclei. What type of optical spectra do they typically see? What physical information can they extract from these optical spectra?
5. What is the key property of a Kerr black hole (as compared to a Schwarzschild black hole)? Who is Roy Kerr, and what did he do to get these black holes named after him? Explain why astronomers think that Kerr black holes might be connected to the production of radio jets.
6. Please explain the concept that “a black hole has no hair.” How is the “hair” lost?
7. What is a primordial black hole? How might we hope to detect primordial black holes in the Universe if they exist?