MAT3061

Special relativity

Coordinator: Dr Paul Cally

4 points - Two 1-hour lectures per week - First semester - Clayton - Prerequisites: MAT2030, MAT2040 - Prohibitions: ASP3121, MAA3061

Objectives On the completion of this subject, students will have an overview of the history of the development of special relativity; be able to draw and understand spacetime diagrams; understand the problems of any concept of 'absolute time'; develop k-calculus and study its use in special relativity; see the Minkowski metric and study its invariance using Lorentz transformations; understand the concepts of 'time dilation' and 'Lorentz contractions'; see how vector analysis is developed in a spacetime setting; solve problems involving energy and 4-momentum; discuss classic paradoxes.

Synopsis Special relativity. The geometry of spacetime. K-calculus. Lorentz transformations. Time dilation, Lorentz contraction. Vector analysis in spacetime. Four momentum. Physics of spacetime, momentum and energy.

Assessment Examination (2 hours): 85% - Assignments: 15%

Recommended texts

d'Inverno R Introducing Einstein's relativity OUP, 1992
Taylor E F and Wheeler J A Spacetime physics: Introduction to special relativity 2nd edn, Freeman, 1992

Back to the 1999 Science Handbook