Course notes

Our best effort to record what we tell you and our discussions will appear here, often in hand-written form.

• Discussion of Tuesday, January 29th, 2019.
• Discussion of Thursday, January 31st, 2019.

• Discussion of Tuesday, February 5th, 2019.
• Discussion of Thursday, February 7th, 2019.

• Discussion of Tuesday, February 12th, 2019.
• Discussion of Thursday, February 14th, 2019.

• Discussion of Tuesday, February 19th, 2019.
• Discussion of Thursday, February 21st, 2019.

• On Tuesday, February 26th, 2019 we had a group discussion synthesizing and exploring the topics we have covered up to this point in the course.
• Discussion of Thursday, February 28th, 2019.

• Discussion of Tuesday, March 5th, 2019.
• Discussion of Thursday, March 7th, 2019.

• Discussion of Tuesday, March 12th, 2019.
• Discussion of Thursday, March 14th, 2019.

• March 18th-22nd, 2019: Spring Break.

• Discussion of Tuesday, March 26th, 2019.
• Discussion of Thursday, March 28th, 2019.

• On Tuesday, April 2nd, 2019 we had a group discussion synthesizing and exploring the topics we have covered since the last exam.

Course Texts

From Sundials to Atomic Clocks: Understanding Time and Frequency, by J. Jespersen and J. Fitz-Randolph (Dover, 1999).

The Order of Time, by C. Rovelli (Penguin, 2018).

Further Recommended Books

A Brief History of Time, by S. Hawking
A classic study that addresses many of the questions we will cover in the class.

The End of Time, by J. Barbour
An excellent introduction to relationalism and time without universal clocks. The second half on quantum time is a harder read.

Why Time Flies, by A. Burdick
A fairly comprehensive coverage of our experience of time.

In Search of Time, D. Falk
A wide ranging treatment of the physics, philosophy and psychology of time.

Time Travel, J. Gleick
An engaging account of the cultural evolution of our notions of time.

It's About Time , D. Mermin
A good non-technical treatment of special relativity and its implications for time.