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See Most Recent Edition

Foundations of Astronomy, 14th Edition

Michael A. Seeds, Dana Backman

  • Copyright 2019
  • {{checkPublicationMessage('Published', '2018-01-01T00:00:00+0000')}}
Starting At £36.00 See pricing and ISBN options
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Foundations of Astronomy 14th Edition by Michael A. Seeds/Dana Backman
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Overview

Fascinating, engaging and extremely visual, FOUNDATIONS OF ASTRONOMY, 14th Edition, emphasizes the scientific method throughout as it guides students to answer two fundamental questions: What are we? And how do we know? In addition to exploring the newest developments and latest discoveries in the exciting field of Astronomy, authors Seeds and Backman discuss the interplay between evidence and hypothesis, providing both factual information and a conceptual framework for understanding the logic of science. Available with WebAssign, the powerful digital solution that enriches the teaching and learning experience. It includes Virtual Astronomy Labs 3.0--a set of 20 interactive activities that combine analysis of real astronomical data with robust simulations--providing a true online laboratory experience for your Introductory Astronomy course.

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Meet the Authors

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Michael A. Seeds

Mike Seeds was a professor of physics and astronomy at Franklin and Marshall College (F&M) in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, from 1970 until his retirement in 2001. In 1989 he received F&M College’s Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching. Mike’s love for the history of astronomy led him to create upper-level courses on archeoastronomy and on the Copernican Revolution (“Changing Concepts of the Universe”). His research interests focused on variable stars and automation of astronomical telescopes. Mike is coauthor with Dana Backman of FOUNDATIONS OF ASTRONOMY, 14th Edition (2019); STARS AND GALXIES, 10th Edition (2019); THE SOLAR SYSTEM, 10th Edition (2019); and ASTRO, 3rd Edition (2018), all published by Cengage. He was senior consultant for creation of the 20-episode telecourse accompanying his book HORIZONS: EXPLORING THE UNIVERSE.

Dana Backman

Dana Backman taught with Mike Seeds in the physics and astronomy department at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, from 1991 until 2003. He invented and taught a course titled “Life in the Universe” in F&M’s interdisciplinary foundations program. Dana has also taught introductory solar system astronomy at Santa Clara University, plus introductory courses on astronomy, astrobiology, cosmology and the science of climate change in Stanford University’s continuing studies program. His research interests focused on infrared observations of planetary system formation and evolution of the solar system’s Kuiper belt. Dana is employed by the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, as lead for the Astronomy Activation Ambassadors teacher professional development program at NASA’s Ames Research Center. Dana is coauthor with Mike Seeds of FOUNDATIONS OF ASTRONOMY, 14th Edition (2019); STARS AND GALAXIES, 10th Edition (2019); THE SOLAR SYSTEM, 10th Edition (2019); and ASTRO, 3rd Edition (2018), all published by Cengage.

What's New

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  • KEY EQUATIONS now have numbers, titles and examples to demonstrate their use. This highlights and reinforces the equations that will be needed to solve problems in later chapters.
  • New SENSE OF PROPORTION questions have been added to help students ground their understanding of relative sizes of celestial objects, distances and so on. As a complement to this, discussion of proportionality has been expanded where relevant throughout the text.
  • The end-of-chapter SUMMARY sections have been significantly revised in all chapters with the goal of helping students focus and better navigate key concepts for review.
  • Discussion Questions have been replaced with ACTIVE INQUIRY QUESTIONS, designed to engage students in deeper critical thinking.
  • Every chapter has been revised and updated with new text and images regarding observatories, scientific missions and new discoveries.
  • Material on normal galaxies, active galaxies and black holes--Chapters 16 and 17 in the previous edition--have been combined and streamlined into a single chapter, Chapter 16. Following chapters have been renumbered as a result.
  • Now AVAILABLE IN WEBASSIGN, both the teacher and student experience are improved -- offering more flexibility, customization and a variety of digital assets to enhance student engagement.
  • VIRTUAL ASTRONOMY LABS with guiding narratives, astronomical data, and robust simulations are now included in a self-paced environment within WebAssign.

Features

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  • The authors focus strongly on the scientific method throughout the text, using astronomy to explore and explain fundamental scientific principles and processes.
  • "How Do We Know?" boxes highlight great moments in science from various disciplines to illustrate the logical processes scientists use to learn about nature.
  • "Practicing Science" features help students review key concepts and hone critical thinking skills by considering how scientists construct logical arguments from observations, evidence, theories and natural laws. Each feature includes a thoughtfully posed science question, sample answers to illustrate scientific reasoning and sometimes a second question that allows students to construct their own argument.
  • A unique art program showcases this visual science in striking style, with hallmark Concept Art providing two-page visual summaries of key concepts covered in the text. "Concept Figures" combine art and text to help students synthesize information as a unified concept. "Guided Discovery Figures" show sequential frames of art to demonstrate processes that occur over time and "H–R" diagrams are designed to help students grasp key ideas at a glance. Whenever possible, the authors bring chapter content to life with captivating photographs from the latest NASA missions.
  • "Common Misconceptions" highlight and correct popularly held misconceptions about astronomy.
  • "Sense of Proportion" questions gauge student understanding of relative sizes and quantities in the Universe.
  • "Learning to Look" questions prompt students to answer questions based on observations of visual evidence shown in diagrams or photographs.

Table of Contents

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Part 1: THE SKY.
1. Here and Now.
2. A User's Guide to the Sky.
3. Moon Phases and Eclipses.
4. Origins of Modern Astronomy.
5. Gravity.
6. Light and Telescopes.
Part 2: THE STARS.
7. Atoms and Spectra.
8. The Sun.
9. The Family of Stars.
10. The Interstellar Medium.
11. Formation and Structure of Stars.
12. Stellar Evolution.
13. Deaths of Stars.
14. Neutron Stars and Black Holes.
Part 3: GALAXIES AND THE UNIVERSE.
15. The Milky Way Galaxy.
16. Galaxies: Normal and Active.
17. Modern Cosmology.
Part 4: THE SOLAR SYSTEM.
18. Origin of the Solar System and Extrasolar Planets.
19. Earth: The Active Planet.
20. The Moon and Mercury.
21. Venus and Mars.
22. Jupiter and Saturn.
23. Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and the Kuiper Belt.
24. Meteorites, Asteroids and Comets.
Part 5: LIFE.
25. Astrobiology.
Afterword.
Appendix A: Scientific Units and Astronomical Data.
Appendix B: Star Charts.
Glossary.

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WebAssign Options

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WebAssign
Each WebAssign online product offers the full textbook combined with a flexible and fully customizable online instructional assignments and tools.

Cengage provides a seamless user experience for Learning Management Systems (LMS) integration. Please contact your Cengage Learning Consultant for ordering information and visit our Learning Management System Integration web page on WebAssign for general information.

Standalone Digital Access — Ultimate Value

Recommended and most popular

  • ISBN-10: 0357113330
  • ISBN-13: 9780357113332
  • RETAIL £36.00
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Textbook Only Options

Traditional eBook and Print Options

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  • ISBN-10: 0357687094
  • ISBN-13: 9780357687093
  • RETAIL £53.00

  • ISBN-10: 1337399922
  • ISBN-13: 9781337399920
  • RETAIL £88.99
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Supplements

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Cengage provides a range of supplements that are updated in coordination with the main title selection. For more information about these supplements, contact your Learning Consultant.

FOR STUDENTS

WebAssign for Seeds/Backman's Foundations of Astronomy, Multi-Term Instant Access

ISBN: 9780357113332
WebAssign for Seeds' FOUNDATIONS OF ASTRONOMY, 14th Edition - Exclusively from Cengage Learning, WebAssign® combines the exceptional Astronomy content that you know and love with the most powerful online homework solution, WebAssign. Enhanced WebAssign engages students with immediate feedback, rich tutorial content, interactive eBooks, and Virtual Astronomy Labs, helping students to develop a deeper conceptual understanding of their subject matter. Online assignments can be built by selecting from hundreds of text-specific problems or supplemented with problems from any Cengage Learning textbook. WebAssign for Seeds/Backman's Foundations of Astronomy, 14th Edition, includes Virtual Astronomy Labs 3.0--a set of 20 interactive activities that combine analysis of real astronomical data with robust simulations and a guiding narrative to provide a true online laboratory experience for your Introductory Astronomy course. Each lab is presented in a modular format with individual auto-graded segments--giving you the control to personalize the labs to suit your needs. New to this edition are Waypoints: short animated video lectures presented by author Mike Seeds as a multimedia extension of the print product's unique Concept Art, and "Sense of Proportion" questions that help students understand the relative sizes of celestial objects, distances and so on. Stay connected and informed in your course through real-time student tracking and adjust the course as needed based on analytics of interactivity in the course.