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Introduction to Astrophysics

Yale,, Spring 2007 , Prof. Charles Bailyn

Updated On 02 Feb, 19

Overview

Planetary Orbits - Our Solar System and the Pluto Problem - Discovering Exoplanets: Hot Jupiters - Planetary Transits - Microlensing, Astrometry and Other Methods - Direct Imaging of Exoplanets - Introduction to Black Holes - Special and General Relativity - Tests of Relativity - Special and General Relativity - Stellar Mass Black Holes - Pulsars - Supermassive Black Holes - Hubbles Law and the Big Bang - Omega and the End of the Universe - Dark Matter - Dark Energy and the Accelerating Universe and the Big Rip - Supernovae - Other Constraints: The Cosmic Microwave Background - The Multiverse and Theories of Everything

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Lecture 10: Tests of Relativity

4.1 ( 11 )

Lecture Details

FrontiersControversies in Astrophysics (ASTR 160)

The lecture begins with the development of post-Newtonian approximations from Newtonian terms. Several problems are worked out in calculating mass, force and energy. A discussion follows about how concepts like mass and velocity are approached differently in Newtonian physics and Relativity. Attention then turns to the discovery that space and time change near the speed of light, and how this realization affected Einsteins theories. Finally, the possibility of traveling faster than the speed of light is addressed, including how physicists might predict from laboratory conditions how this might occur. Muons, unstable particles that form at the top of the Earths atmosphere, are used as an example.

0000 - Chapter 1. Velocity and Mass in Special Relativity
0834 - Chapter 2. Gamma and Post-newtonian Mass
1534 - Chapter 3. What Is Mass?
2625 - Chapter 4. Lorentz Transformations and Relativistic Effects
3502 - Chapter 5. Time, Light, and the World

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website httpopen.yale.educourses

This course was recorded in Spring 2007.