Individual course details | ||||
Study programme | General Physics | |||
Chosen research area (module) | ||||
Nature and level of studies | Undergraduate and master academic studies | |||
Name of the course | Introduction to Theory of Gravitation | |||
Professor (lectures) | dr Duško Latas | |||
Professor/associate (examples/practical) | ||||
Professor/associate (additional) | ||||
ECTS | 3 | Status (required/elective) | elective | |
Access requirements | Introduction to Classical Mechanics | |||
Aims of the course | The main aim of the course is to provide students with a overview of the basic concepts of the general relativity. |
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Learning outcomes | At the end of this course, students will be expected to have a general knowledge of the basic concepts of the general relativity, describe the theoretical principles which is general relativity based on, experiments that confirm it and most important predictions that come from it. | |||
Contents of the course | ||||
Lectures | 1. Flat Spacetime. Minkowski Diagrams. 2. Relativistic dynamics. 3. Newton's law of universal gravitation. The Principle of equivalence. 4. Inertia. Motion in a rotating, relativistic frame. 5. Metric, curvature and Einstein's equations. 6. Geometry and gravity. Geodesic equation. 7. A freely falling inertial frame. Gravitational red shift. 8. A famous experimental test of the gravitational red shift. 9. Gravitational field of a spherical mass. 10. Motion of particle in the spherical field. Precession of the perihelion. 11. Bending of light in a gravitational field. 12. Experimental tests of general relativity. 13. Black holes. 14. Cosmological models. | |||
Examples/ practical classes | ||||
Recommended books | ||||
1 | John B. Kogut, Introduction to Relativity: For Physicists and Astronomers, Academic Press, 2001 | |||
2 | Bernard Schutz, A First Course in General Relativity, Cambridge University Press, 2009 | |||
3 | James B. Hartle, Gravity: An Introduction to Einstein's General Relativity, Addison-Wesley, 2003 | |||
4 | ||||
5 | ||||
Number of classes (weekly) | ||||
Lectures | Examples&practicals | Student project | Additional | |
2 | 0 | 0 | ||
Teaching and learning methods | Lectures (theoretical treatment of topics, examples) | |||
Assessment (maximal 100) | ||||
assesed coursework | mark | examination | mark | |
coursework | 10 | written examination | ||
practicals | oral examination | 50 | ||
papers | ||||
presentations | 40 | |||