These hypernotes are intended to combine lecture material and more details on selected topics - material that would traditionally  be in a text - into a unified whole. Accessing them over the internet requires a reasonably high speed connection, not a modem. To be sure you can all use them efficiently, we have distributed them on CD to the class and posted them on the web in case you find yourself without the CD but with a good web connection.

To make the notes so they run on nearly any computer, they use GIF animations. GIFs are relatively crude, but make minimal demands on you to download movie players. The animations will run better with a reasonably fast computer with good graphics support, and also if you adjust their position on the screen so only one is being displayed at any one time. We also include a lot of movies that you can play if your computer has the right software. If any of them don't play, not to worry - there is nothing in the notes or course that depends on them.

Every effort has been made to make the notes accurate and to attribute correctly the sources for the information. Most of the information is from the web and links to the original sources are provided as a reference; in some cases these links are broken because the sites are no longer maintained, but I have retained the links as a record. Please send any comments or corrections to grieke@as.arizona.edu.. The notes are copyrighted. If you should use the items from the notes for any other purpose, please contact me for permission (grieke@as.arizona.edu) and indicate the source as G. Rieke, University of Arizona, and give the URL of the item in question so others can see it in context.