PH544 Introduction to General Relativity (Spring 2017-18)
Instructor name: S. Shankaranarayanan
Course Type: Honours / Elective
Pre-requisites: Special relativity (informal)
Course Content: Introduction to manifolds and metric, Gaussian curvature, Geodesic equation, Christoffel symbols, Tensor analysis, Riemann curvature, Covariant derivative and parallel transport, STR, Equivalence principle, Einstein's equation, Energy-momentum tensor, Schwarzschild solution, Applications of GR in cosmology.
Books: Sean Carroll - spacetime physics
Weinberg - gravitation and cosmology
Lectures: Blackboard lectures, no attendance, lectures were tough to follow because sir insisted on doing the math first and then telling us why we are doing what we are doing which wasn't right in my opinion. The lectures got slightly better in the end.
Assignments: 7-8 Assignments, meant to be submitted but he wasn't strict about the date of submission and then stopped collecting them altogether. Said he would add questions from the assignments to the endsem paper and did. Assignments were okayish, helped practice tensor analysis (most important part of the course)
Exams and Grading: 2 quizzes, midsem, endsem, papers were okay, very lengthy because many sums involved finding riemann tensors and ricci tensors for a metric.
Online REsources: Check out Leonard Susskind's GR lecture series. Very good to help with the physical interpretation of the theory.
Pro-Tips: Practice tensor analysis because, like most courses, the course will test your ability to work with tensors more than anything else. This will increase your calculation speed too. I took the course because I have always been fascinated by this theory and even though I feel the course could have been better, I am not disappointed and am glad to know more about it now because self-study helps me more than anything :)
Respondent: Sahil Adane
Note: This is a review to help you make a more informed choice about how to study for this course and/or choosing this course. While we've tried to keep it objective and complete, one must keep in mind that students have varying interests, methods of study, and the course itself changes from year to year.
Course Type: Honours / Elective
Pre-requisites: Special relativity (informal)
Course Content: Introduction to manifolds and metric, Gaussian curvature, Geodesic equation, Christoffel symbols, Tensor analysis, Riemann curvature, Covariant derivative and parallel transport, STR, Equivalence principle, Einstein's equation, Energy-momentum tensor, Schwarzschild solution, Applications of GR in cosmology.
Books: Sean Carroll - spacetime physics
Weinberg - gravitation and cosmology
Lectures: Blackboard lectures, no attendance, lectures were tough to follow because sir insisted on doing the math first and then telling us why we are doing what we are doing which wasn't right in my opinion. The lectures got slightly better in the end.
Assignments: 7-8 Assignments, meant to be submitted but he wasn't strict about the date of submission and then stopped collecting them altogether. Said he would add questions from the assignments to the endsem paper and did. Assignments were okayish, helped practice tensor analysis (most important part of the course)
Exams and Grading: 2 quizzes, midsem, endsem, papers were okay, very lengthy because many sums involved finding riemann tensors and ricci tensors for a metric.
Online REsources: Check out Leonard Susskind's GR lecture series. Very good to help with the physical interpretation of the theory.
Pro-Tips: Practice tensor analysis because, like most courses, the course will test your ability to work with tensors more than anything else. This will increase your calculation speed too. I took the course because I have always been fascinated by this theory and even though I feel the course could have been better, I am not disappointed and am glad to know more about it now because self-study helps me more than anything :)
Respondent: Sahil Adane
Note: This is a review to help you make a more informed choice about how to study for this course and/or choosing this course. While we've tried to keep it objective and complete, one must keep in mind that students have varying interests, methods of study, and the course itself changes from year to year.
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