Equations in The Theory of Relativity! Help!

[bluescience]

So hey guys, i am planning on sitting down and understanding all the equations that are of or relating to the theory of relativity.

 

I know of some, but do you guys have an order that is best to study them in, especially if I am partially confident that i understand the theory of relativity, but i just want to know the math behind it.

 

Thank You,

 

 

 

[timo]

I think the best way is attending university lectures or picking up a textbook. Lecturers and textbook authors tend to put a lot of thought into how to teach relativity best and in which order (and there usually is evidence that they are actually qualified to talk about the subject they are teaching). I doubt that a list made up by some forum member on the fly or some anecdotes of forum members' own experiences can compete with that in terms of quality.

[ajb]

Get hold of the lecture notes of Carroll. Google them and you will find a free copy via his website or the arXiv. I think they are quite readable and no too mathematical for a first read. They may leave you wanting more, but this is a good thing.

[Strange]

John Baez also has a good introduction: http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/einstein/

[elfmotat]

Special or General Relativity? If you're already familiar with SR and want to move onto GR then I agree with ajb's recommendation. If you're new to it I recommend reading Spacetime Physics by Taylor and Wheeler. Carroll's full GR textbook is excellent as well.

Edited April 18, 2016 by elfmotat

[bluescience]

Yes, Thank you for the suggestions so far, but if anyone has anymore suggestions, please tell me. I have already started reading Carroll's lecture notes, but the math of course requires a good knowledge of calculus, so far right now i am doing a pre-calculus course at high school. So far I am halfway though the 1st set of lecture notes without any big confusions due to math, but if i do start getting confused because of the calculus ill find a more dumbed down version or just learn the calculus itself.

 

Thanks a lot though.

[ajb]

I have already started reading Carroll's lecture notes, but the math of course requires a good knowledge of calculus, so far right now i am doing a pre-calculus course at high school.

Most of physics requires some reasonable knowledge of calculus. However, a good chunk of special relativity you could understand knowing a little linear algebra. As you are in high school, I doubt you are familiar with linear algebra. Still, special relativity may be a bit easier for you to start with,

[bluescience]

Most of physics requires some reasonable knowledge of calculus. However, a good chunk of special relativity you could understand knowing a little linear algebra. As you are in high school, I doubt you are familiar with linear algebra. Still, special relativity may be a bit easier for you to start with,

Oh no, we have gone much past linear algebra, we are doing limits and derivatives, so i am learning the basics of calculus in my pre-calculus class, We have also gone over vectors so that should help. But in Carroll's notes it talks about rotating the axis, and taking their primes, that is some deep calculus i have not learnt yet, those things are going to be the things that trouble me.

[elfmotat]

Oh no, we have gone much past linear algebra, we are doing limits and derivatives, so i am learning the basics of calculus in my pre-calculus class, We have also gone over vectors so that should help. But in Carroll's notes it talks about rotating the axis, and taking their primes, that is some deep calculus i have not learnt yet, those things are going to be the things that trouble me.

 

Most people take a linear algebra course after taking multi-variable calculus. Regardless, much of Special Relativity can be learned with basic algebra and the Pythagorean Theorem. There are many good explanations of the 'light-clock' thought experiment floating around, which is a good starting point.

[Mordred]

Here is an open source textbook on SR.

 

http://www.lightandmatter.com/sr/

 

this one is another lecture note on GR.

 

http://www.blau.itp.unibe.ch/newlecturesGR.pdf "Lecture Notes on General Relativity" Matthias Blau

[ajb]

Oh no, we have gone much past linear algebra, we are doing limits and derivatives, so i am learning the basics of calculus in my pre-calculus class, We have also gone over vectors so that should help.

Well, your schooling was better than mine.

 

You should have some idea of vector spaces, linear transformations, inner products and linear forms. That is just about all one needs for the basics of special relativity.

 

 

But in Carroll's notes it talks about rotating the axis, and taking their primes, that is some deep calculus i have not learnt yet, those things are going to be the things that trouble me.

In this case the prime just means 'another'. He wants to compare different choices for the axis. This is much like changing basis of a vector space.