Selected review questions: relativity

This is only a short, partial list of some review questions and hints; but it does contain most of the possible exam material from relativity. Since we did not go through much detail, you are generally expected to know about the basic ideas and some most striking effects.

Special Relativity

Concept Check  5   (on the page 295 in the book)

This question summarizes a good deal of special relativity effects, all in a few sentences: make sure you understand the statement of it! (Answering it may be a tad bit more involved; here is a hint: (f) is not the answer :) The real comment: it is more important that you are comfortable with what the question says.

Review Questions  17 and 18 (on page 319 in the book); look through #21, too.

Now these (first) two summarize most of the rest of what you need to be clear about. (Again, without going into details. Also, we have not talked much about the concept of “rest-mass.”)

General Relativity

Review Questions  24, 25 and 28 (on page 319 in the book)

Again, these summarize some basic statements of general relativity; understanding them will go a long way toward being able to answer exam questions (correctly). Since the last one is a little ambiguous, here is a comment: make sure you have a short answer. There is nothing wrong with having a long one too, but you should be able to articulate it in a sentence or two (having to do with the curving of the space-time, that is.)


Since these questions are directly answered in the book (and discussed at sufficient length), there is no point in providing ‘answers’ here. (You can also refer to a short summary of relativity – which may not precisely conform to the usual idea of “short” – and to overviews of special and general relativity.)