General Information about 8.286 for 2009:

• Course Information Sheet, 2009, in PS and PDF.

• Instructor: Alan H. Guth, Room 6-322, Ext. 3-6265, guth@ctp.mit.edu .
• Teaching Assistant: Leo Stein, Room 37-602, Ext. 3-6235, leostein@mit.edu .

• Lecture Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:35 - 10:55 a.m., in Room 37-212.

• Office Hours:

  Alan Guth:	Thursdays, 5:45 - 6:45 p.m., Room 6-322. (Starts Sept 17, 2009)
  	Exceptions: No office hour Thursday, September 24, October 15, or November 5.
  	Special office hours: Wednesday, September 23, 4:30 - 5:30 p.m., and Wednesday November 4, 4:30 - 5:30 p.m.
  	Directions: Enter the CTP through the main entrance on the 3rd floor of the infinite corridor, Bldg 6 — the door should be unlocked. Walk ahead, staying to the right.
  Leo Stein:	Mondays, 4:00 - 5:00 pm, Room 37-656.
  	Exceptions: No office hour Monday, October 12; instead, office hour Tuesday, October 13, 2:30 - 3:30 pm.
  	Directions: Take elevator to 6th floor of Bldg 37, turn left, take first door on the left, and then the conference room is on the right.

• Class Contact List (For Class Members Only)

• Quiz 1: Tuesday, October 6, 2009

  	COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 1 (indicated sections only); Lecture Notes 3 and 4; Problem Sets 1, 2, and 3; Weinberg, Chapters 1-3, Ryden, Chapters 1 and 2 and Section 3.1.   BRING CALCULATORS!
  	REVIEW SESSION: Sunday, October 4, 2009, 7:30 pm, with Leo Stein, 37-212 (our usual classroom). Bldg 37, however, will be locked. Enter from the 3rd floor of Bldg 35, which can be reached from Bldg 7 by walking in the direction of Central Square, through Bldgs 9 and 33.
  	REVIEW PROBLEMS (with formula sheet and solutions): PS.GZ (1 up), PS.GZ (2 up), PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).

• Quiz 2: Thursday, November 5, 2009

  	COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 5 and 6; Problem Sets 4, 5, and 6 (Problem 1 only); Weinberg, The First Three Minutes, Chapters 4-7; Ryden, Introduction to Cosmology, Chapters 4, 5, 6, and 10. However, Ryden's Chapters 4, 5, and 6 are intended to help you understand the lecture material, so there will be no quiz questions based specifically on this material. Chapters 4 and 5 of Weinberg's book are packed with numbers; you need not memorize these numbers, but you should be familiar with their orders of magnitude. As we said for the previous quiz, we promise not to take off for the spelling of anybody's name, as long as the name is vaguely recognizable. For dates before 1900, it will be sufficient for you to know when things happened to within 100 years. For dates after 1900, it will be sufficient if you can place events within 10 years. For this quiz you should definitely expect a problem based on the reading, similar to Problems 1 and 2 in the Review Problems for Quiz 2, and to the reading problems given in previous years. One of the problems on the quiz will be taken verbatim (or at least almost verbatim) from either the homework assignments, or from the starred problems on the Review Problems for Quiz 2.
  	REVIEW SESSION: Tuesday, November 3, 2009, 7:30 pm, with Leo Stein, Room 6-120 (NOT our usual room!).
  	REVIEW PROBLEMS (with formula sheet and solutions): PS.GZ (1 up), PS.GZ (2 up), PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).

Announcements:

• Tuesday, September 15, 2009:
  We have not yet set up regular office hours, but the first Problem Set is due Thursday. Therefore, Leo Stein will have a special office hour tomorrow, Wednesday September 16, from 4 - 5 pm, in his office, Room 37-602. At our next class we will arrange regular office hours for both Leo and me.
• Wednesday, November 4, 2009:
  There are some minor errors in Lecture Notes 6, and there is one error in the Review Problems for Quiz 2. They are listed in this errata.

2009 Lecture Notes

2009 Lecture Slides:

2009 Problem Sets:

2009 Quizzes:

2009 Grade Histograms:

8.286 Web Page Information from Previous Years

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