General Relativity

Prof. Leonard Susskind, Stanford University

General relativity is the geometric theory of gravitation that generalises special relativity and Newton's law of universal gravitation, providing a unified description of gravity as a geometric property of space and time, or spacetime. In particular, the curvature of spacetime is directly related to the energy and momentum of whatever matter and radiation are present. This course uses the physics of black holes extensively to develop and illustrate the concepts of general relativity and curved spacetime.

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Topics covered

Gravitation, Tensor Calculus, Equivalance Principle, Einstein's Field Equations, Black Holes, Geodesics

Course level

Graduate

Suggested prerequisites

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Distribution license

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License

1	The equivalence principle and tensor analysis	Watch lecture
2	Tensor mathematics	Watch lecture
3	Flatness and curvature	Watch lecture
4	Geodesics and gravity	Watch lecture
5	Metric for a gravitational field	Watch lecture
6	Black holes	Watch lecture
7	Falling in to a black hole	Watch lecture
8	Formation of a black hole	Watch lecture
9	Einstein field equations	Watch lecture
10	Gravity waves	Watch lecture