This is the homepage for PL2283-Philosophy of Relativity, Fall 2009, NYU-Poly.  Choose from the selection below.  This page will be updated periodically.

• Syllabus

• Lecture Notes
• 01. Survey of Pre-20th Century Physics
• 02. Special Relativity: Two Postulates, Michelson/Morley Experiment
• 03. Simultaneity
• 04. Kinematic Effects
• 05. Dynamics - Momentum
• 06. Dynamics - Energy
• 07. Interpreting Special Relativity
• 08. Non-Euclidean Geometry
• 09. General Relativity:  Geometrization of Gravity
• 10. The Einstein Equations
• 11. Interpreting General Relativity
• 12. Relativistic Cosmology
• 13. Black Holes. Part I.
• 14. Black Holes. Part II.
• 15. Time Travel. Part I.
• 16. Time Travel. Part II. (Time Machine Spacetimes)
  

• Assignments
• Paper (due Thurs Dec 3)
  
• hw#1 (due Sept 22)
• hw#2 (due Sept 24)
• hw#3 (due Oct 1)
• hw#4 (due Oct 8)
• hw#5 (due Oct 15)
• hw#6 (due Oct 22)
• hw#7 (due Nov 5)
• extra credit #1 (due Nov 5)
• hw#8 (due Nov 12)
• hw#9 (due Nov 19)
• extra credit #2 (due Nov 24)
  
• hw #10 (due Dec 1)
• hw #11 (due Dec 3)
• hw #12 (due Dec 8)
  

• Links
• Guidelines for Writing Philosophy Essays
  
• Relevant articles in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
• "Space and Time:  Inertial Frames"
• "Backward Causation"
  
• "Conventionality of Simultaneity"
• "The Equivalence of Mass and Energy"
  
• "Being and Becoming in Modern Physics"
• "Absolute and Relational Theories of Space and Motion"
• "The Hole Argument"
• "Supertasks"
  
• "Time Machines"
• "Time Travel and Modern Physics"
• "Early Philosophical Interpretations of General Relativity"
  
• Other resources:
• Ned Wright's Cosmology Tutorial
  
• Jerzy Kocik's "Time Machines and Physics" website