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Visual explanations behind important equations in astronomy

When connections between related observations and facts are not being made, introductory science classes can be perceived as an accumulation of disjointed equations with the risk of losing both students’ interest as well as their grasp of the materials. In astronomy we have to walk a tightrope between being complete in our presentation of modern-day findings and skirting the surface of quantum mechanics. We introduce Wien’s displacement law, Stefan–Boltzmann’s law, Hubble’s law, and we talk about the age of the Universe and when it first became transparent. The derivation of all these laws and their applications to get numbers out of observations requires knowledge of modern physics, knowledge that students have not acquired (yet), so we tend to choose to not make connections between them. In here, we offer an alternative approach to overcome these drawbacks: we make connections between the main tenets of the laws, such as the temperature dependence that enters Stefan–Boltzmann’s law, and processes that students are familiar with, such as the acceleration of electrons. In doing so we reduce the number of disjointed facts presented to students, and we are able to relate equations to imagery that does not rely on faulty representations.