Relativity

Spring 2025    Welcome to PH4035! This is a course on relativity, our fundamental understanding of space and time.
  1. Lecture Notes -- check for updates
    1. Chapter 5, 8 and 10 of Analytical Methods in Physics
    2. Lecture Notes on Relativity
  2. Class Venue: S4-208
  3. Class Times: Mondays 3 to 4:50 pm; Tuesdays 1 to 1:50 pm [Note: No class on 14 April and 2 June]
  4. My Office: S4-718
  5. E-mail: yizen [dot] chu [at] gmail [dot] com
  6. My Office Hours: None. Just come look for me.
  7. Graduate Teaching Assistants: Aulia Zafaran (auliazafaran [at] gmail)
  8. Aulia's Office hours: Thursdays 1-2 pm @ S4-507
- Yi-Zen
  • Disability     If you have a disability that you think I should know about, and if you need special accomodations, please feel free to speak to me after class or e-mail me to set up a meeting.    
  • Academic Integrity     You are encouraged to discuss with your classmates the material covered in class, and even work together on your assignments. However, the work you turn in must be the result of your own effort. If I find that you copied your work from some place else, you will immediately receive zero credit for that particular piece of work. If you plagarized your classmate, your classmate will also receive zero credit for her/his/their work, unless (s)he/they can prove to my satisfaction (s)he/they were unwilling participant(s) of your dishonesty.
Syllabus and Grading Scheme

The course material will include:
  • Newton's laws, geometry of flat space, Euclidean and Galilean symmetry
  • Variational principle for classical dynamics, Noether's theorem
  • Geometry of flat spacetime, Poincare and Lorentz symmetry
  • Relativistic kinematics, spacetime causality
  • Relativistic formulation of electromagnetism
  • Basics of General Relativity (if time permits)
Because I wish to reward hard work during the semester, I will give most weight -- 75% of your total grade -- to the homework you turn in and the associated presentations. The rest of the 25% will be for the final presentations.

Homework (50%):     I recommend starting your homework as soon as possible -- do not wait until the day before it is due to do it! Note: I will not accept late homework -- just turn in whatever you have done at the time/day it is due.
  1. Due Wednesday 12 March: Relativity 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.6, 1.7. AM 8.2, 8.3, 8.17, 8.18, 8.19.
  2. Due Wednesday 2 April: AM 10.4, 10.5, 10.6, 10.10, 10.11, 10.19, 10.20, 10.21, 10.22, 10.23.
  3. Due Wednesday 7 May: AM 10.24, 10.39, 10.40, 10.41, 10.42, 10.43, 10.45, 10.46, 10.48, 10.49.
  4. Due Friday 13 June: AM 5.12, 5.14, 5.61, 7.38, 10.60, 10.72; Relativity 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.7, 4.8, 4.11, 4.14, 4.17.

Presentations (25%):     Present the solutions to the following problems in class.

  1. Due Monday 17 March: Relativity 1.4, 1.5. AM 8.21
  2. Due Monday 7 April: AM 10.12, 10.14, 10.25
  3. Due Monday 12 May: AM 10.47, 10.50, 10.52.
  4. Due Monday 16 June: Relativity 4.13; also: Lorentz transform the Coulomb potential of a static point charge q into an inertial frame where it is moving at velocity v. Describe the electric and magnetic fields in this frame.
Final Presentations on 16 June (25%)     Give a 50 minute in-class presentation on one of the topics related to Special Relativity below. If you wish to come up with your own, be sure to discuss it with me first.
  • Explain the Sagnac effect and its experimental verification to date.
  • What are the tests of Lorentz invariance? See for e.g., S2.1.2 and 2.1.3 of Will and Mattingly.

Relativity Textbooks

(Mostly links to amazon.com -- out of convenience; not an endorsement of their business practices.)

Relativity Lecture Notes

Acknowledgements

While developing this course, I have taken inspiration from several of the textbooks & video lectures listed above.

Disclaimer

The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of mine (Yi-Zen Chu). The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by the National Central University.