Professor H. L. Bray
        Teaching

Math 590:
Topics in General Relativity

Spring Semester, 2020
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:05 - 11:20 a.m., Physics 150


Professor Hubert Bray                               [email protected]
189 Physics Building                             (919)757-8428 (mobile)

Office Hours:  Tuesdays and Fridays, 11:20 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

The first part of this course is based on videos you will watch before class. Give yourself time to digest the material since you will be quizzed on it at the beginning of most classes.

Take notes! You may use NONDIGITAL notes that YOU take in YOUR HANDWRITING on REGULAR PAPER during all of the quizzes! However, you may not use electronic devices, the internet, photocopies of notes, digital copies of notes, or even notes that you typed (since authorship is impossible to determine) during the quizzes. However, you may use as many pages of notes as described above as you like.


For January 14, watch these videos:

The Rule of Pythagoras (7 minutes)
Rotations and the Dot Product (26 minutes)
Gauss's Geometry and Special Relativity (15 minutes)
Special Relativity is a Minus Sign in the Rule of Pythagoras (18 minutes)
Take notes! There will be an open notes quiz at the beginning of class that can cover anything we've done so far.


For January 16, watch these videos:

The Light Cone (19 minutes)
The Universality of the Speed of Light (43 minutes)
World Lines and the Twin Paradox (26 minutes)
Take notes! There will be an open notes quiz at the beginning of class that can cover anything we've done so far.


For January 21, watch these videos:

Boosts are Rotations in Space and Time (41 minutes)
How Velocities Add - Part 1 (13 minutes)
How Velocities Add - Part 2 (8 minutes)
How Lengths Contract (17 minutes)
Take notes! There will be an open notes quiz at the beginning of class that can cover anything we've done so far.


For January 23, watch these videos:

The Train in the Tunnel Paradox (23 minutes)
De Sitter Space - The Spacetime Unit Sphere of Special Relativity (14 minutes)
Hyperbolic Space - The Spacelike Unit Sphere of Special Relativity (44 minutes)
Take notes! There will be an open notes quiz at the beginning of class that can cover anything we've done so far.


For January 28, watch these videos:

Time Travel and Alien Abduction (24 minutes)
Introduction to General Relativity (14 minutes)
The Geometry of Black Holes (21 minutes)
Take notes! There will be an open notes quiz at the beginning of class that can cover anything we've done so far.