Introduction to Relativity

Catalog description

Introduction to special and general relativity including space-time diagrams and relativistic kinematics, length contraction, time dilation, equivalence principles, curved space and cosmology. PHYS 230 Introduction to Relativity (3) This course is designed for science or engineering students who have successfully completed calculus-based physics courses through electricity and magnetism ( PHYS 212 ), and differential and integral calculus ( MATH 140 and MATH 141 ). Concurrent courses of linear algebra ( MATH 220 ) and vector calculus ( MATH 230 or MATH 231 ) are required. This course should provide the student with a mathematical and physical understanding of relativity theory beyond that which one encounters in semi-popular treatments of the subject. The mathematical skills which this course will develop, e.g. tensors and tensor analysis, should be especially useful to students in a wide range of science and engineering fields from computer science to physics and electrical engineering.