Lesson Plan: Hubble’s Law Physics
This lesson plan includes the objectives, prerequisites, and exclusions of the lesson teaching students how to use the formula 𝑣 = 𝐻₀𝑑 (Hubble’s law) to calculate the distance to faraway galaxies using the recession velocity.
Objectives
Students will be able to
- recall that light from objects moving away from us is redshifted,
- recall that light from objects moving toward us is blueshifted,
- recall that the further away a galaxy is, the greater its redshift is and the faster it is moving away from us,
- use (Hubble’s law) in all permutations,
- interpret graphs of radial velocity against distance or redshift against distance.
Prerequisites
Students should already be familiar with
- electromagnetic radiation,
- stars and galaxies,
- light-years.
Exclusions
Students will not cover
- proper motion,
- relativistic Doppler effect,
- gravitational redshift,
- measuring distances to distant galaxies,
- supernovae,
- Cepheid variable stars,
- the change in the rate of expansion of the universe over time,
- dark matter,
- dark energy.