PHY483F/1483F

First homework assignment

Please send a brief e-mail (to phy483f at physics dot utoronto dot ca) if you are taking this course for credit. Include in your message your e-mail address, your first and last name, your university's name, and a brief statement of your background (e.g. are you a physicist/mathematician). This is for my records. [Note: this is an allowed exception to the general "no-email" rule.]

Carroll problem Subject Estimated difficulty
1.4"Superluminal" light on the skyeasy
1.10Lorentz transformations for E and B fields (the 3-vectors) straightforward
-Solve the twin paradox by using a spaceship path of 2 sections with (opposite) constant velocity, and an intermediate section of constant acceleration g. How does your answer for age of astronaut-twin, compared to age of ground-twin,  depend on g and overall distance L traveled by spaceship? medium
- E&M in differential form notation medium
3.6Newtonian potential; metric; geodesics around Earth.
Also, find the Ricci scalar.
medium/hard

Advice

Marking HW1 is done now. Please pick up your assignment from Pascal in MP906A on Monday, Nov.01, 3-4pm or Tuesday, Nov.02, 3-4pm.

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Please take a look at this file for a brief note about tensors that might be useful for the current homework assignment.

Start now. Don't procrastinate on earning so much of your final grade until a few days before the 13th October due date. Also please carefully note my lateness policy at the bottom of the Assessments page .

My office hour exists for explaining GR physics; please feel free to make good use of it. I also encourage students to discuss the general physics behind these questions together, e.g. in a study group. (Your answers must, however, be individual, in accord with principles of academic integrity.)

In eyeballing the third column, please note my grading philosophy, which is outlined in the Assessment page .