Relativity, Spacetime, and Contemporary Physics

PHYS 130, Fall 2026

Course Web Page

Brooks Thomas

Hugel 020
Physics Department
Lafayette College
730 High St.
Easton, PA 18042

Email: thomasbd@lafayette.edu

Contact Info

Physics at Lafayette

Other Resources

• My Personal Home Page
• Lafayette Physics Department
• Physics Courses

• List of NSF REU Sites
• APS Resources for Students
• Society of Physics Students (SPS)
• CUWiP
• SACNAS
• National Society of Black Physicists

Course Materials and Other Useful Links

• Syllabus
• Resources and Demos Page
• Course Moodle

Textbooks

• Thomas A. Moore, Six Ideas That Shaped Physics: Unit R — Laws of Physics are Frame-Independent, 4th Ed. (McGraw-Hill, 2023).

Instructor Drop-In Hours

My instructor drop-in hours this semester will be held in Hugel 125. (These are sometimes referred to as "office hours," but in this case that's a misnomer in this case because Hugel 125 is not my office.) These drop-in hours are listed below:


• Mon., 11:40 noon - 12:40 PM
• Tues., 12:00 noon - 1:15 PM
• Wed., 3:00 - 4:00 PM

The default assumption is that my drop-in hours will take place in person. However, if the need arises for you to attend my drop-in hours virtually at any point during the semester (e.g., because of a winter-weather emergency or an illness), please email me in advance to schedule a virtual drop-in-hours meeting.

Course Schedule

This schedule includes both lecture and laboratory components of the course. The sources referred to in the "Readings Covered" column are abbreviated as follows:


• "Moore C": Thomas A. Moore, Six Ideas That Shaped Physics: Unit C — Conservation Laws Constrain Interactions, 2nd Ed.
• "Moore R": Thomas A. Moore, Six Ideas That Shaped Physics: Unit R — Laws of Physics are Frame-Independent, 4th Ed.
• "Griffiths P": David J. Griffiths, Introduction to Elementary Particles,, 2nd Ed.
• "Griffiths R": David J. Griffiths, Revolutions in Twentieth-Century Physics.
• "Krane": "Kenneth Krane, Modern Physics, 3rd Ed.
• "Taylor": Edwin F. Taylor and John. A. Wheeler, Exploring Black Holes: Introduction to General Relativity.



Date	Topic	Reading Covered	Homework
Week 1
8/24	Introduction and Overview	Moore C, Ch. 1
8/25	Phys 130 Lab: Introductory Meeting (1:15 - 4:00 PM in Hugel 042)
8/26	Vectors and Velocity	Moore C, Ch. 2
8/28	Coordinate Transformations	Moore C, Ch. 3	HW 1 Due
Week 2
8/31	Monentum	Moore C, Ch. 4
9/1	Phys 130 Lab: Speed of Light: Time-of-Flight Method (1:15 - 4:00 PM in Hugel 042)
9/2	Interactions and Collisions	Moore C, Ch. 5	HW 2 Due
9/4	Energy	Moore C, Ch. 6
Week 3
9/7	The Speed of Light	Moore R, Ch. 1.1 - 1.6
9/8	Phys 130 Lab: Speed of Light: Fiber-Optic Method (1:15 - 4:00 PM in Hugel 042)
9/9	Spacetimes Diagrams and SR Units	Moore R, Ch. 2.1 - 2.3	HW 3 Due
9/11	Worldlines and Spacetime Diagrams	Moore R, Ch. 2.4 - 2.7
Week 4
9/14	Time and The Metric Equation	Moore R, Ch. 3.1 - 3.3
9/15	Phys 130 Lab: The Michelson Interferometer (1:15 - 4:00 PM in Hugel 042)
9/16	The Geometry of Spacetime	Moore R, Ch. 3.4 - 3.7	HW 4 Due
9/18	Time Dilation	Moore R, Ch. 4.1 - 4.6
Week 5
9/21	Coordinate Transformations	Moore R, Ch. 5.1 - 5.4
9/22	Mid-Term Exam I (During Lab Period, from 1:15 - 3:00 PM in Hugel 042)
9/23	The Lorentz Transformation	Moore R, Ch. 5.5 - 5.6
9/25	Relativistic Invariants
Week 6
9/28	Length Contraction	Moore R, 6.1 - 6.4
9/29	Phys 130 Lab: Lifetime of the Muon, Part I (1:15 - 4:00 PM in Hugel 042)
9/30	The Pole/Barn Paradox	Moore R, Ch. 6.5 - 6.6	HW 5 Due
10/2	Causality	Moore R, Ch. 7.1 - 7.3
Week 7
10/5	The Velocity Transform	Moore R, Ch. 7.4
10/6	Phys 130 Lab: Lifetime of the Muon, Part II (1:15 - 4:00 PM in Hugel 042)
10/7	Four-Momentum	Moore R, Ch. 8.1 - 8.3	HW 6 Due
10/9	Four-Momentum Conservation	Moore R, Ch. 8.4 - 8.6
Week 8
10/12	Fall Break (No Class Meeting)
10/13	Fall Break (No Lab Meeting)
10/14	Photons and Other Massless Particles	Moore R, Ch. 9.4
10/16	Relativistic Collisions	Moore R, Ch. 9.1 - 9.3, 9.5 - 9.6
Week 9
10/19	General Relativity and the Equivalence Principle
10/20	Phys 130 Lab: Polarization of Light (1:15 - 4:00 PM in Hugel 042)
10/21	The Geometry of Curved Spacetime	Taylor, p. 2-17 - 2-24	HW 7 Due
10/23	Black Holes	Taylor, p. 2-24 - 2-41
Week 10
10/26	Gravitational Waves
10/27	Mid-Term Exam II (During Lab Period, from 1:15 - 3:00 PM in Hugel 042)
10/28	The Atom and its Nucleus	Krane: Ch. 12.1 - 12.4
10/30	Nuclear Decay	Krane: Ch. 12.6 - 12.9
Week 11
11/2	The Basic Building Blocks of Nature	Griffiths P, Ch. 1.1 - 1.4
11/3	Phys 130 Lab: The Hydrogen Spectrum (1:15 - 4:00 PM in Hugel 042)
11/4	The Four Fundamental Forces	Griffiths P, Ch. 2.1	HW 8 Due
11/6	Matter: Quarks and Leptons	Griffiths P, Ch. 1.6 - 1.9
Week 12
11/9	Feynman Diagrams and Interactions	Griffiths P, Ch. 2.2
11/10	Phys 130 Lab: Quantum Dots (1:15 - 4:00 PM in Hugel 042)
11/11	Hadrons and the Strong Force	Griffiths P, 2.3	HW 9 Due
11/13	The Weak Force	Griffiths P, Ch. 1.10, 2.4
Week 13
11/16	Neutrinos	Griffiths P, Ch. 1.5
11/17	Phys 130 Lab: Nuclar Decay (1:15 - 4:00 PM in Hugel 042)
11/18	The Higgs Mechanism, Part I		HW 10 Due
11/20	The Higgs Mechanism, Part II
Week 14
11/23	Colliders and Detectors
11/24	Thanksgiving Break (No Lab Meeting)
11/25	Thanksgiving Break (No Class Meeting)
11/29	Thanksgiving Break (No Class Meeting)
Week 15
11/30	Redshift and Cosmic Expansion	Griffiths R, Ch. 5.1
12/1	Phys 130 Lab: The Cloud Chamber (1:10 - 4:00 PM in Hugel 042)
12/2	Dark Matter		HW 11 Due
12/4	Unanswered Questions	Griffiths R, Ch. 5.4
Final Exam
TBA	Final Exam: TBA