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Course Description

This course is normally taken by physics majors in their sophomore year.

Major Topics Include

• Einstein's Postulates, and their Consequences for
  • Simultaneity
  • Time Dilation
  • Length Contraction
  • Clock Synchronization
• Lorentz Transformation
• Relativistic Effects and Paradoxes
• Minkowski Diagrams
• Relativistic Invariants and Four-Vectors
• Relativistic Momentum, Energy, and Mass
• Relativistic Particle Collisions
• Relativity and Electricity
  • Coulomb's Law
  • Magnetic Fields
• Introduction to Key Concepts of General Relativity
  • Principle of Equivalence
  • Cosmology
  • Friedman-Robertson-Walker Metric
  • Black Holes
  • Schwarzchild Metric
  • Gravitational Red Shift
  • Particle and Light Trajectories
  • Shapiro Delay
  • Gravitational Lensing

Prerequisites

Physics I (8.01), Calculus II (18.02)

Texts

Resnick, Robert. Introduction to Special Relativity. New York, NY: Wiley, 1968.

French, A. P. Special Relativity. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Education Research Center: MIT Introductory Physics Series. New York, NY: Norton, 1968.

Taylor, Edwin F., and John A. Wheeler. Exploring Black Holes: Introduction to General Relativity. San Francisco, CA: Addison Wesley Longman, 2000. ISBN: 9780201384239.

Grading