PH902-1D THEORY OF RELATIVITY COURSE INFORMATION

							PH902-1D THEORY OF RELATIVITY COURSE INFORMATION
July 23, 2007

1

Instructor Information

instructor: Cengiz Pehlevan e-mail: cengiz@het.brown.edu phone: 863-3110 office: BH625 office hours: Everyday at 11 am. You are most welcome to drop by my office anytime. Call to check if I am in.

2

Syllabus

We will be covering a selection of the following topics: Newtonian Dynamics and Galilean Relativity, Electromagnetism and Maxwells Equations, Michelson-Morley Experiment, Lorentz Transformations, Postulates of Relativity, Coordinates and Simultaneity, Light Cones and Causality, Time Dilation, Length Contraction, Geometry of Spacetime: Vectors and Metrics, Minkowski Spacetime, Conservation of Energy-Momentum Four-Vector and Rest Mass, very brief introduction to General Relativity.

3

References

Course website is at http://www.pehlevan.com/SR. We will not be following a textbook, but will make use of online reference material. Relevant links will be given in class and be posted on the website.

4

Homework and Grading

Homework will be given daily. Your Course Performance Report will reflect your homework performance and class participation.

1