Syllabus

Download a course syllabus here.

Course Description

St. Augustine famously proclaimed “What, then, is time? If no one asks of me, I know; if I wish to explain to him who asks, I know not.” 1500 years later, Einstein revolutionized physics by recognizing that time is malleable: he showed that simultaneity depends on how you are moving, and that clocks in motion or acted on by gravity measure time differently. In this course we will take up a detailed examination of the evolving physical description of the nature of time, which can seem to clash with our common sense perception of time. We will examine the physics that helps us pursue conceptual clarity on this and several other foundational aspects of the nature of time. This will entail a focus on the measurement of time and a detailed study of clocks. Throughout we will test our ideas about time and clocks through laboratory experiments.