Theory of Relativity

Full course description

This course focuses on one of the two variants of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, that is known as Special Relativity, which is a complete description of space and time at the most fundational level of Nature. Most notably, the Theory of Relativity posits that space (lengths) and time (durations) are not separate entities, but are intimately entwined with each other; it also posits that these are not fixed but depend on the inertial system of the observer. This makes for a rich and interesting underlying structure of space and time. Building up this structure and learning how to apply it to exercises and physical situations, is the main goal of the lecture series.

We will start our series by identifying, historically, how Special Relativity was discovered and how it followed naturally from the laws of electromagnetism; we will then build up its laws and relationships in the historical (but limited) way of Gedankenexperiments, followed by the rigorous (but complete) way of Minkowski-geometry. We will introduce Lagrangian formalism of theoretical physics to derive the laws of special-relativistic mechanics. We will apply the theory in numerous exercises, for which we will also find graphical ways of getting insight in their solutions.

Finally, we will study the paradoxes and misconceptions; Special Relativity is a theory that is easy to misunderstand, and it is important that we study which misconceptions there are, how to identify them, and how to remedy them.