Spacetime and the Quantum World

News:

Guide 4 is now posted. It is due October 30.

Quiz I is October 23. (If you haven't taken it yet!)

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.

Quantum World

• QM: A paper (pdf) on the history of the Stern-Gerlach experiment.
• QM: He interference the waiting for data and final pattern image. From John Townsend, Quantum Physics. For the paper see Kurtsiefer at al, Nature 386 (1997) 150.
• The He interference experiment in three more views: How the results depend on wavelength, a plot of the pattern on the right side, and left side.(Images from Townsend, Quantum Physics. Data from Kurtsiefer et al)
• QM: The BBC recorded a lecture in 1964 of Richard Feynman discussing quantum theory using the double slit experiment. It shows its age but you might like to take a look.

Relativity:

• GR: Notes on the derivation of the gravitational time dilation.
• GR: A short popular science piece on the equivalence principle.
• GR: A Hubble space telescope image of Abell 2218.
• GR: A wired article about the stunning visualizations of black holes in Interstellar. The visualization work was published in 2015. The video abstract is worth a view.
• GR: A NASA visualization of an accretion disk around a black hole.
• GR: A snap (pdf) of the first image of a black hole illuminated by a disk of glowing matter, which was computed by Luminet in 1979 (!). (Ref: Astron. Astrophys. 75 (1979) 228.)
• GR: Andrew Hamilton's amazing videos on black holes.
• GR: Videos and graphics produced for GW250114.
• An overtone example: the Pummerin ringing in Stephansdom (short video).
• GR: A piece by Dennis Overbye on the second image of M87 by the Event Horizon Telescope. The newly released image is on the top right of the page.
• SR: An extensive summary of papers on experimental verification of special relativity.
• SR: Beautiful animations of the apparent geometry of relativistic moving objects. The dice and the ride down Marktgasse in Tuebingen are particularly good. Note, however, that redshift is not accounted for.
• SR: Notes on the "Happy Birthday Alice" question, number 33 on the lecture questions.
• SR: Pictures of Berne's Clock Tower in early 1900's and 2005
• SR: The homepage for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey database (example spectrum and example 2)
• SR: The electromagnetic spectrum. An old video on the electromagnetic spectrum primarily for children, but still helpful.
• SR: Simple animations on special relativity at NYU.
• 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. (This version is from a little while ago.)
• SR: For a little more on Ole Roemer's determination of the speed of light see the wikipedia article.
• SR: From the United States Naval Observatory, the UTC reference time.
• 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 15 October 2025