Is general relativity taught at the undergraduate level at State? If so, what is the physics course called for General relativity

8/6/2007 10:45:36 PM

I can't imagine a more intolerable class

8/6/2007 11:16:38 PM

you know quite well where to find the answer to this question

http://www2.acs.ncsu.edu/reg_records/crs_cat/PY.html

8/6/2007 11:46:49 PM

General Relativity isn't so complex as to require its own course.

8/7/2007 1:47:12 AM

General Relativity is taught by Kheyfets just about every year. Typically it meets MW for about 1.5 hours at night. There is usually no homework or assignments except the final exam. Essentially he grades it like it's a survey course. He will claim you need only calc. III to enter the course, that's true but if you take more math it'll make a lot more sense.

Kheyfets course is quite good in my opinion. I've taken GR elsewhere and the concepts were not nearly as clearly laid out. He is an expert and cares little for modern fancy physics like Strings, he's an unusual character in this sense, there are not too many folks that have done basically nothing but played with GR their entire career. Dr. Brown in the physics department is also very knowledgable on this subject.

Now this is a "graduate" course, but don't be fooled anybody interested can take it. You might have to talk to somebody to get in, I'm not up to date on the red-tape.

[oh, to answer your question GR is taught briefly in py 341, but it's a joke in my experience]

I'm happy to tell you more, just PM me.

[Edited on August 7, 2007 at 4:56 PM. Reason : .]

8/7/2007 4:54:35 PM

sit in on a few weeks of modern physics?

8/7/2007 8:02:54 PM

So, how much of the class is filled with wannabe stephen hawkings who are more interested in hearing themselves talk?

8/7/2007 10:01:06 PM

Fulp is teaching a good class this fall, MA 430....mathematical models in physics is the name, but he'll cover thing from newtonian mechanics to special and general relativity to lorentzian mechanics. he goes into differential forms and exterior algebras, the minkowski metric, etc for a very mathematical treatment of the topic.

i took it two semesters ago and it was a very, very good course. no wannabe hawking's in there, we were all just entranced with what Fulp had to say.

if you want general relativity with a strong background and context, take Fulp's class.

8/7/2007 11:35:29 PM

so mathman, what would the physics course number be for General Relativity?

8/8/2007 12:52:16 PM

virga is correct about Fulp's course. It will cover Special Relativity from a more mathematical perspective then say py 341. I don't think he'll get into much General Relativity though, given the detail in which Dr. Fulp tends explore physics I'd guess GR would take several semesters.

Kheyfets takes a more physicsy approach to the math so he can get pretty far pretty quick.

^ (no physics number as far as I know) I think it was ma 793 when I took it, but it is not specific to that course, the course number is the one the math dept. uses for special topics courses, lets see it is ma 797. If you look at the course offerings you'll see there are many ma 797, each is very different. From what I saw GR is not offered next semester, what I'd do if I were you is gather together a few interested folks and go to Kheyfets and ask him to teach it. Worked for me and my friends a few years back.

Oh, and get Sean Carroll's book on GR if you really want to get into some detail, I think its well written and quite modern. Kheyfets loosely follows the phonebook Gravitation, but really he does his own thing.

8/8/2007 7:50:06 PM

^ that book is insane

8/8/2007 9:08:16 PM

perhaps, but it has a brain.

[Edited on August 8, 2007 at 11:40 PM. Reason : .]

8/8/2007 11:39:37 PM

Quote :

"So, how much of the class is filled with wannabe stephen hawkings who are more interested in hearing themselves talk?"

omg that was my first thought.

that would just be insufferable.

8/9/2007 5:04:47 PM

Why would anyone want to be Stephen Hawkings ? I don't get it, what has he done in the past 20 years except write popular scifi books ?

8/9/2007 11:40:53 PM

it doesn't matter that he hasn't done anything original since the early '80s

he's a nerd celebrity.

every beret-wearing, dungeons&dragons-playing, montypython-quoting dork wants desperately to be publicly celebrated for their superior intellect.

8/10/2007 12:32:34 AM

First, I would replace beret with one of those ever so trendy highlander trench coats. Second, there are lots of folks who are just curious about GR, if you want know-it-all narcissists then look no further then the Mensa-engineering types. Only about 1/10 of the kids in that class fit your prediction.

That thread about hitch-hiking has convinced me you don't quite fit that mold.

8/10/2007 4:17:19 PM

oh, i'm sure most of the GR class is cool people who want to learn.

but it only takes one of "those guys" to ruin an entire semester's class if the prof doesn't/won't/can't take control.

thats all i meant by it being insufferable. i took two PHI classes, and basically quit going to both of them early on because of one or two "geniuses" in the front row who wouldn't STFU.

8/12/2007 11:56:31 PM