PARADIGMS IN PHYSICS: PARADIGM 9
Reference Frames

Course Description
First Day Handout
Syllabus

Textbooks
Class Notes
Articles on Coriolis Effects
Books on Special Relativity

Textbooks

  • (MT) Marion & Thornton, Classical Dynamics of Particles and Systems, 3rd ed.,
    • Harcourt Brace, 1988.
  • (GE) Griffiths, Introduction to Electrodynamics, 3rd ed.,
    • Prentice Hall, 1999.

    Class Notes

  • Rotations in the Plane
  • Rotations in Space
  • The Foucault Pendulum
  • Hyperbolic Geometry

    • Articles on Coriolis effects

  • McDonald, The Coriolis Effect,
    • Scientific American, May 1952, p. 72.
  • Burns, Deflection of Projectiles due to Rotation of the Earth,
    • Am. J. Phys. 39, 1329 (1971).
  • Renault & Okal, Investigating the physical nature of the Coriolis effects in the fixed frame,
    • Am. J. Phys. 45, 631 (1977).

    Books on Special Relativity

    The following books on special relativity     should be on reserve in the library.
  • Dixon, Special relativity: the foundation of macroscopic physics,
    • Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1978.
    (QC173.65 .D58)
  • Ellis & Williams, Flat and curved space-times,
    • Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1988.
    (QC173.65 .E45 1988)
  • French, Special relativity,
    • Norton, New York, 1968.
    (QC6 .F74)
  • Mermin, Space and time in special relativity,
    • McGraw-Hill, New York, 1968.
    (QC6 .M4)
  • Taylor & Wheeler, Spacetime physics : introduction to special relativity, 2nd ed.,
    • W. H. Freeman, New York, 1992.
    (QC173.65 .T37 1992)
  • Woodhouse, Special relativity,
    • Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1992.
    (QC173.65 .W66 1992)
  • Synge, Relativity: the special theory, 2d ed.,
    • North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1965.
    (QC6 .S9 1964a)
  • Rindler, Introduction to special relativity,
    • Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1982.
    (QC173.65 .R56 1982)
  • Resnick, Introduction to special relativity,
    • Wiley, New York, 1968.
    (QC6 .R388)

    Video on Special Relativity

  • The Mechanical Universe,
    • Volume 42: The Lorentz Transformation,
    The Annenberg/CPB Collection, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, 1985/1987.
    (available from the Corvallis Public Library)


    tevian@math.orst.edu

    ©1997 & 1998 Tevian Dray