Interesting course. Professor is thorough and explained it brilliantly.

I just happen to think that Larry is a splendid lecturer, (as it were)

Great course - well structured, and expertly guided.

Amazing course teaches a lot about the universe.

The most complicated theory was made very easy.

it is a very interesting and unique chapter

I like the way the instructor explains.

wonderful!! more than as expected

Good place to learn

Everything's nice.

EXCELLENT

Great for people who have no background in mathematics whatsoever.

Can't believe this course is taught to Stanford students (or any college students). The lecturer is soooo repetitive. He tells you what he's going to tell you, then he tells you and then he recaps. And he summarizes it all at the start of the next lecture. And there's a separate summary lecture at the end of each week. That said, he explains the material well. Cut the lectures by 2/3 and you'll have a 5-star course.

The course was too simple and the derivations too slow. I expected more involved math and harder quizzes.

no math

Loved this course!

This was my first course through Coursera that I completed in full :) and I'm glad I did it. I always was a bit interested in Astrophysics and even had LOTS of books on my shelf in the hope that someday I would start reading and learning - all by myself. But I couldn't gather enough motivation - and so it never really worked out. But after taking up the course and going through the different topics - I feel that I can begin a more serious approach to studying Relativity and can tackle some of the standard books on the subject.

I don't have a background in Physics, but that didn't prove to be a problem while going through the course. I was able to complete each week's contents by spending around 45mts-an hr each day. Was also maintaining my own set of notes - I'm sure I might be looking at them again someday when I'm exploring the subject bit more in depth. The quizzes were somewhat easier that I expected and I'm happy I was able to get some of my doubts clarified promptly through the forums.

My only concern was that a) I would have liked the course to be bit more technical/mathematical and b) I wish I had completed the 'optional problems' too at the end of each week :). But these are not really so critical as it was an introductory course and I didn't have any basic understanding of Relativity prior to this.

Overall I'm happy to have completed my first course , having gained an insight into Einstein's work and taken my first baby steps towards understanding Astrophysics/Cosmology ! Looking forward to see some more related/advanced courses in the same area. Thanks to the Faculty, all the timely help on the Forums & Coursera!

P.S.

Can't wait to show-off my Certificate to everyone !!!

Regards

Anand

This fascinating course presented by a historian of science covers not just the basics of special relativity but the historical context as well. The lecturer starts off each week with some Einstein quotes and goes to great depths to explain the basic concepts at a level that is accessible to students with minimal experience of maths and physics. The concepts are firmly drilled in with plenty of optional quizzes after each mini-topic, and a summary video at the end of each week. The lectures are long but anyone short on time has the option to go straight to the weekly summary/quiz, and/or play videos at up to 2x speed (especially in weeks 2 and 3).

The main highlight for me was the explanation of the famous Twins Paradox and other related paradoxes which are resolved by understanding frames of reference and the relativity of simultaneity. Another bonus was an explanation of the bending of light by gravity through a simple thought experiment involving an accelerated elevator.

Some important topics not covered in the course, or only hinted at, are: treatment of accelerated reference frames (required to derive the relativistic rocket equations), relativistic momentum and kinetic energy (required to calculate the rocket fuel required) and relativistic energy (used to derive Einstein's mass-energy equivalence formula).

Overall I highly recommend the course to anyone with the time and inclination.

So you're wondering if you have the ability to learn about the Special Theory of Relativity. After all, this theory was developed by a genius and it involves math, something that many people shy away from. Doesn't it take a background in physics and confidence in your math ability to get something out of the class? No. The remarkable thing about this class is that is presented at multiple levels simultaneously. If you are confident in your knowledge of physics and math, the explanations and optional exercises will be a welcome challenge. At the same time, the general concepts are explained in such a manner that you'll learn enough about the Special Theory of Relativity to get the "big picture" even if you don't immerse yourself in the mathematics. From there you can learn about it in more detail, if you wish. The test for me in taking any class is whether I'm able to explain the concepts to someone else in casual conversation. This course certainly met the test.

This course was exactly what I was looking for to get a good understanding of the Special Theory of Relativity for a non-specialist. The course progression was very good, building new concepts on top of the previous ones. The video lectures were lively and well presented. The difficulty level and the required math skills were exactly what the course description indicated.

I recommend future students to take this course at a steady pace, and to allocate enough time to take notes, to review the concepts and to go back if necessary. Don’t rush through it. It is very useful to try to solve the optional problem sets. The main difficulty is not related with the math, but with the relationship between the equations and the physical phenomena they describe.

I am 100% satisfied with this course. As a matter of fact, I plan to go again through my notes to make my own personal recap of the main concepts and formulas.

Thanks a lot to Professor Lagerstrom!

Very professional approach by Professsor Larry Lagerstrom. His patience in teaching is highly commendable. The key feature of the course is "Make Haste Slowly" This ensures that no matter what background of academics you come from, at the end of the course you will have understood the principle aspects of Special Relativity. The syllabus is designed very well. Both qualitative and quantitative elements are covered nicely. A participant will understand all the key concepts of special relativity like time dilation, length contraction, relativity of simultaneity etc He will also understand the most famous paradox of special The Twin Paradox and get some insight into the most famous equation E=mc2. I salute Prof Lagerstrom for his extreme patience in teaching a complex topic. I recommend this course to anyone who wants to know a bit about how the Universe works even for those without any background knowledge of Physics or Mathematics.

This course is greatly set up by professor LARRY RANDLES LAGERSTROM in such a way that even a high school student can understand these topics in our country.I request the Coursera community to appoint this instructor again for making a course on GENERAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY by taking enough time as required .I know General theory of relativity takes a lot of mathematical background but an attempt should be taken to start from the roots to make the learners get through the topics.Separate mathematics teachers along with professor LARRY should collaborate to make this happen.The already available course on General relativity requires way too pre maths to start .Why not take 2 or 3 years to develop that skill right here by Coursera such that home schooled students can learn the entire course online up here.AS FOR THIS COURSE IT WAS GREAT AND LARRY SIR HAS MOTIVATED ME A LOT TO CONTINUE WORKING ON THIS FROM HERE ON.THANK YOU.

It is a very good course that is well organized and explained. The instructor was extremely great; he uses a lot of examples and thought experiments to help us imagine the situation. Although relativity is such a hard topic to learn for many people, the approach of instruction in this course makes it interesting and easy to be comprehended. After the course, you will find that you have learnt a great amount of knowledge about the topic and you can go into discussions about relativity related issues, even that you don't feel stressed during the course by the enormous amount of materials. Moreover, this course is suitable for anyone interested in the topic, even without much knowledge in physics before, because the course explains everything even the basic concepts.

I learnt A LOT from this course, and it encouraged me to love the topic, get excited about online learning and go even deeper in relativity study.

Mr. Larry Randles Lagerstrom is very knowledgeable and he is an excellent teacher. Course is very well designed and presented. The subject matter was enough to get incite into the 'Special Theory of Relativity' and also covered the history of Einstein 's era. I understood most of the things due to Mr. Lagerstrom's way of presenting the facts. Most interestingly, I understood the way things work in the realm of Special Theory of Relativity which was a big question in my mind for long time. Quizzes were very thoughtful and really testing the knowledge gained in the respective lectures. I have not solved the extra questions set given at the end of last few weeks yet but I will do that in near future and in case of doubts I would like to contact Mr. Lagerstrom via e-mail.

I enjoyed it thoroughly and I would like to attend many more such courses. Really thanks and appreciate.

This course was truly an excellent way to learn about Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity. The content covered most of the main aspects of Special Relativity, and the instructor did a top notch job of explaining how the various aspects of the theory are derived and many implications of the Theory. The maths involved in this course is no more than high-school level algebra with a few tricks, and as such the course should be within most people's reach with a bit of effort. Mind you, the concepts themselves are somewhat counter-intuitive, so be prepared to think a lot about the implications. However, all that being said, I highly recommend this course! It is a very well presented and accessible way to start to grasp Einstein's most profound work in his "miracle year" of 1905.

Well, I wanted to finally tackle the famous theory that revolutionized 20th century physics as a matter of general culture, but going beyond the superficial cualitative explanations you found here and there. This course is absolutely great, and helped me accomplish that goal.

If the last year you dealt with algebra was many years ago, don't despair: the professor offers a clear review of all the math you need. The professor, by the way, is what makes this course great, as he is really exceptional at teaching.

The course requires patience and dedication (specially week 5), but at the end is greatly rewarding, and it allows you to go for harder material (meaning undergraduate level books on the subject).

I would suggest you do all the problem sets.

Thank you very much, Stanford.