| Abstract: | Supernovae are the cosmic distributers of chemical elements but we do not know how they explode. We do know some things about the light they emit. I will describe the use of global energy conservation and new insights into the central statistical properties of type Ia supernovae as a population - in particular the width luminosity relation. Hopefully the accumulating data will soon reveal how these cosmic explosions occur. If time permits, I will describe efforts to incorporate simple numerical calculations in the high-school physics class. |
