ASTR 3740 Spring 2025 Syllabus

ASTR 3740 Spring 2025 Homepage

ASTR 3740 Relativity & Cosmology Spring 2025: Syllabus

Content

This is an upper division course intended to introduce science students to special and general relativity, to black holes, and to cosmology. This course is an elective for the APS major and APS minor.

We will spend 4 weeks on Special Relativity, 6 weeks on General Relativity and Black Holes, and 5 weeks on Cosmology. For more details, see the Timetable.

The course will combine visualization, physical understanding, and mathematics. I will assume that you are comfortable with matrices (necessary for understanding Lorentz transformations) and with calculus (necessary for understanding metrics). The mathematics will not be fearsome (we will not be doing tensors or anything like that), but I will assume that you are the kind of person for whom mathematics helps rather than hinders understanding. If you do not fall into this category, you should consider taking one of the lower division courses ASTR 2030 Black Holes or ASTR 2010 Modern Cosmology, both of which are being taught this semester, Spring 2025.

Classes in person

Classes will be in person. A remote zoom option will not be available. I do however plan to record classes, and recorded classes will be available via canvas. It sometimes takes a while to process and edit the recording, but my intention is to have the recording posted to canvas hopefully on the same day as the lecture. The canvas recordings are behind the CU firewall, accessible only to people in the class. By participating in the class, you agree to have your participation (image and audio) recorded. CU rules prohibit you from recording the class separately.

Generative Artificial Intelligence

Who discovered black holes? Ask google. Gen AI has become a staple of modern life. It can be very helpful in answering simple questions, jogging your memory, and pointing to useful sources. Be aware that gen AI is not an authority, and sometimes just makes stuff up.

Any work that you submit for grade must be your own. If you try to pass off someone else's work, including AI, as your own, then that will be considered a violation of the CU Honor Code, with potentially serious consequences. The general rule is, if you use any resource, including AI, you should document that use. You must put any phrases you borrow in “quotes,” and reference the source.

Problem sets

There will be several (seven are planned) problem sets, which downloadable from Problems. You are welcome, indeed encouraged, to collaborate with each other on problem sets, but what you submit for grade must be your own work. You should upload your answers to canvas.

There will be a tendency for problem sets to be more mathematical than exams or group projects.

Only the best 6 of 7 problem sets will count for grade.

In class group Projects

There will be three in-class group Projects, as scheduled on the Timetable. The projects are intended to engender thought and discussion, and to exercise your powers of logic. They are not designed to be chug-and-plug exercises.

Projects will be take place in class. Each project will take place during a full class period. For the project, you will assemble into groups of 3 or 4. You should immediately assign one of your group to be the “Scribe”. The group should discuss and solve the project together.

It is the Scribe's responsibility to write up the results obtained by the group, and to upload them to canvas at the end of class (you have till 2pm to upload). I will accept only one submission from each group. The write-up must include the name of the Scribe, and the names of all the other members of the group.

Only the best 2 of 3 projects will count to your project grade. This is so that you can be unavailable for any one project without penalty. There are no project make-ups, since the whole idea of projects is to work in teams.

Exams

There will be two midterms and one final, in class, as scheduled on the Timetable.

The exams will cover material discussed in class, and will consist largely of short answer or short essay questions. The two midterms will cover material covered in the previous 4 and 6 weeks respectively. The final will cover all material covered cumulatively during the semester, with an emphasis on the final 5 weeks.

There will be summary sessions prior to each exam.

Grading

Grading will be weighted as follows:

Item	Weight
Problem Sets	3/8
Projects	1/8
Midterm 1	1/8
Midterm 2	1/8
Final	2/8

Clickers

We will be using iClickers. If you choose not to use an iClicker, then it will not affect your grade, but if you choose to use an iClicker, I will use the best 3/4 of your iClicker scores to replace the worst 1/8 of your score: (a) worst two Problem Sets, or (b) Projects, or (c) worst Midterm, or (d) half the Final.

To have your iClicker scores counted, you can do one of two things:

Purchase an iClicker, and Add an iClicker Remote ID to a Student Account.
Set up a free iClicker Student Account. You can record your iClicker responses from your cellphone or laptop. iClicker will request your institution, which is University of Colorado Boulder, and the course name, which is Relativity and Cosmology. The instructor name is Andrew Hamilton.

Clicker questions will generally be of two kinds:

Questions at the beginning of class on the topic of the previous class, or on the assigned reading;
Concept questions arising in class.

You win clicker points as follows:

Points	Assessment
0	No answer
1	Wrong answer
2	Right answer

It is strictly forbidden to operate someone else's clicker for them. If you are discovered doing this, then both you and the person whose clicker you operated will receive an F. If you see a classmate operating two or more clickers, please bring it immediately to my attention.

Fiske Planetarium

CU's Fiske Planetarium has been reserved at the usual class time as listed in the Timetable. You should go directly to Fiske (Campus map) on the listed days.

Students with Disabilities

The law requires us to make reasonable accommodations to students with learning or physical disabilities. If you need such accommodations, then you should tell me about them in a timely manner. Your first step is to contact Disability Services, who will assess your needs and let me know what accommodations I should provide.

If you have a temporary medical condition or injury, see Temporary Medical Conditions, and discuss your needs with me.

Policies

Please consider the CU required syllabus statements as part of this syllabus. As part of the CU community, you are expected to respect the CU Honor code.

Common Courtesy

I expect you:

To give the class your full attention.

You may expect me:

To finish lectures on time.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

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Updated 2025 Jan 13