Fall 2025
"... until at last it came to me that time was suspect!" - A. Einstein (Shankland interview 1950)
"... the concept of time is nothing more than a convenient, although potentially treacherous, device for summarizing compactly all the relationships holding between clocks." - N. D. Mermin It's About Time, pg. 63
"... be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abysses nature leads, or you shall learn nothing." - T. Huxley (letter to Kingsley 23 Sept. 1860)
| Instructor: |
Seth Major, smajor, x4919, Sci G052 |
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Office Hours:
After each class and Thursdays 2:00 - 5:00 PM.
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| Lectures: |
Tuesday and Thursday at 10:30-11:45 AM in Sci Ctr G041 |
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| Texts: |
Mermin, It's About Time |
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Styer, The Strange World of Quantum Mechanics |
News:
This week office hours are 2:10 to 5 Thursday .
The second guide is posted. It has problems due Thursday September 25 at 11 PM on gradescope.
I recommend reading the chapters in Mermin before class - it helps with learning - but there will be no quizes on this. Be sure to complete the reading before the assignment(s) and midterm.
Course Info and Documents (pdf):
Guides (pdf):
Links for exploring:
These are identifed by topic: "SR" means special relativity, "GR" means general relativity, and "QM" means on the quantum world.
Relativity:
- Notes (pdf) for the derivation of length contraction.
- SR: On Wikipedia, a quote of the "Galileo's ship" passage from Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems
- SR: A translation of "Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies", Einstein's original 1905 paper on special relativity. Here's a pdf (1.9 MB) of the original article in German pubished in Annalen der Physik.
- A video with a description of the Hamilton speed of light experiment.
- SR: A video highlighting the use reference frames in the Olympic coverage of the men's 200 meter event. See also the race at the London 2012 games. The interesting bit starts at about 3:30.
History
- SR: An online exhibit on Einstein hosted by American Insitute of Physics.
Additional Reading
- SR: Dan Styer, Relativity for the Questioning Mind
- SR and Einstein: Dennis Overbye, Einstein in Love (A ``1st half" biography of Einstein. It ends in 1915.)
- SR and Einstein: Abraham Pais, Subtle is the Lord (A full biography of Einstein that has a careful treatment of the science.)
- QM: Louisa Gilder, The Age of Entanglement
Last modified 18 September 2025
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