Warning the large files below are too big to download over a telephone line. If the size is not given then they are not too big.

Here are some notes from February 27 that derive the Rayleigh-Jeans formula for black body radiation.
Soon, I will post some notes on Plank's analysis that leads to the actual spectrum of black body radiation.

Here are some notes from January 14 that discuss time dilation,
some notes from January 16 that discuss length contraction,
some notes from January 18 that discuss simultaneity,
some notes from January 23 that discuss Lorentz transformations and velocity addition from January 25,
some notes from January 28 that discuss the Doppler effect and the definition of the interval,
and some notes from January 30 that discuss the interval and an introduction to space-time diagrams,
and some notes from April 2, that discuss wave packets.

Energy issues
Here is a compendium of facts related to energy and energy usage.

Paradoxes in relativity
Here are some space-time diagrams and explanations that might help with understanding the many seeming paradoxes of special relativity.

E = mc^2
Einstein wrote a paper in 1905 which first describes the equality between mass and energy. In this paper, which has been translated into English, the famous "E=mc^2" equation is described in the third to the last paragraph, on page 3. See if you can identify the equation.

Math self-assessment
Please take a look at the Math self-assessment. This describes the expected level of mathematical sophistication for this course.

On-line chapters from the textbook
Chapter 14 text (858 KB)
Chapter 14 summary and problems
Chapter 14 index

The original 1784 article (3.3MB) in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, by the Rev. John Michell (an amateur scientist), which first proposes the possible existence of what we call "black holes" today. It is interesting to note that there are no equations, and what should have been written as an equation is written out in sentences. The relevant precursor discussion to "black holes" is paragraph 16 on page 42."

The original 1798 article (5.2 MB) in the Philosophical Transaction of the Royal Society where Henry Cavendish, a good friend of the Rev. John Michell, describes his measurement of the force of gravity between two lead balls in his laboratory which allowed him to first deduce Newton's gravitational constant "G." Interestingly, Michell, had started this experiment, but died before it was concluded. Cavendish picked up where Michell finished, made substantial and important improvements in the experimental design and deserves the credit. Cavendish clearly credits Michell in the opening sentence. I find this article to be extremely readable, and it gives a perspective of science in 1798.

An earlier 1760 article (6.5 MB) by Michell identifies a relationship between fault lines in the Earth's crust and the presence of volcanoes. For this work, he is sometimes referred to as the "Father of Seismology."

My brief description of John Michell, Henry Cavendish, black holes and Newton's gravitational constant "G". This includes a "translation" of the relevant paragraph of Michell's 1784 paper. Here are photocopies of the cover of the relevant issue of The Philosophical Transactions, the Title Page of Michell's article, and the notable paragraph wherein the possibility of black holes is first proposed.

A computer generated mpg movie, from the Max Planck Institute shows the motion of stars within about 10 light-days of the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way. Using just Newtonian gravity and the motions of these stars, we can deduce that there is a jumbo sized black hole in the center of our galaxy. Its mass appears to be about a million times the mass of our own sun.

A second version of the same movie (5.5 MB) is just a gif file, and will play in any browser. But the file is much larger (5.5 MB) and shows the motion of stars within about 10 light-days of the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way.

Einstein's original 1904 article (translated into English) is surprisingly readable.

More advanced notes on relativity by William Unruh from the University of British Columbia.

An article from Physics Today, by Burton Richter which describes advances in the theory of elementary particles.

A 1990 article (6.5MB) from Physics Today which describes the exciting observations made by the COBE satellite and led to the 2006 Nobel Prize going to George Smoot and John Mather. These observations showed that the relic radiation left over from the big bang is, to the accuracy then obtained, an ideal black body spectrum at 2.7K.

A 2006 article from Physics Today, by Vera Rubin who recounts the early (~1976) astronomical analysis of rotation curves of galaxies which first revealed the presence of "dark matter."

A 2006 article from Physics Today describes the recent, exciting W-MAP observations which reveal the details of the Big Bang and the structure of the Universe.

An article from Notes of the American Physical Society, by Janet Stemwedel from San Jose State University, about the value of a college education.

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences requirements for an incomplete grade of I .