ANNOUNCEMENT: No recitation class on Friday, December 7.

General Information about 8.286:

• Course Information Sheet, 2007, in PS and PDF.

• Instructor: Alan H. Guth, Room 6-322, Ext. 3-6265, guth@ctp.mit.edu .
• Recitation Instructor: Barton Zwiebach, Room 6-305, Ext. 3-4839, zwiebach@mit.edu .
• Teaching Assistant: Yi Mao, Room 6-413, Ext. 3-9300, ymao@mit.edu .

• Lecture Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:35 - 10:55 a.m., in Room 4-237.

• Recitation Hour: Fridays, 11:05 - 11:55 a.m., in Room 4-231.

• Optional Recitation Classes:
  This semester, for the first time, there will be recitation classes associated with 8.286, taught by Prof. Barton Zwiebach.

  Since the recitations were scheduled too late to be an official part of the course, they will be OPTIONAL.

  The classes will be used to review material from the lectures and reading, to discuss homework problems and perhaps other problems similar to the homework problems, and occasionally to introduce supplementary material. Since the classes are optional, any new material that might be introduced will not be included on any course exams or required problem sets. You should come to these classes if at all possible, as they will certainly be worthwhile. However, if it is too late to squeeze it into your schedule, you can at least be assured that there will be no penalty in terms of grades.

• Office Hours:

  Barton Zwiebach:	Monday, 7:00 - 8:30 p.m., Room 8-320.
  	Exception: No office hour Monday, December 3.
  	Office hour on Tuesday, December 4, 7:00 - 8:30 p.m., Room 8-320.
  Yi Mao:	Tuesdays, 12:30 - 1:30 pm, Room 8-308.
  	Exception: Change of time on Tuesday, December 4: 1:00 - 2:00 pm, Room 8-308.
  	Office hour on Wednesday, December 5, 5:00 - 6:00 p.m., Room 8-308.
  Alan Guth:	Thursdays, 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm, Room 6-322.

• Class Contact List (For Class Members Only)

• Quiz 1: Tuesday, October 2, 2007

  	COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 1 (indicated sections only); Lecture Notes 3, 4, and 5; Problem Sets 1, 2, and 3; Weinberg, Chapters 1-3, Ryden, Chapters 1 and 2 and Section 3.1.
  	REVIEW SESSION: Monday, October 1, 2007, 7:00 pm, Room 4-237, with Prof. Barton Zwiebach.
  	REVIEW PROBLEMS (with solutions): PS.GZ (1 up), PS.GZ (2 up), PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).
  	REVISED FORMULA SHEET: PS (1 up), or PDF (1 up).

• Quiz 2: Tuesday, November 6, 2007

  	COVERAGE: Lecture Notes 6 and 7; Problem Sets 4, 5, and 6; Weinberg, Chapters 4-8, Ryden, Chapter 5.
  		Ryden's Chapter 5 is 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.
  	REVIEW SESSION: Monday, November 5, 2007, 7:00 pm, Room 2-105, with Prof. Barton Zwiebach.
  	SPECIAL OFFICE HOUR: Yi Mao will hold an office hour on Monday, November 5, 2007, from 4:00 - 5:00 pm, Room 8-310.
  		He will have no office hour on Tuesday, November 6.
  	REVIEW PROBLEMS (with solutions): PS.GZ (1 up), PS.GZ (2 up), PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).
  		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 from this set of Review Problems.
  	REVISED FORMULA SHEET: PS (1 up) or PDF (1 up).
  	CALCULATORS: You will need a calculator for this quiz. Please bring one.

• Quiz 3: Thursday, December 6, 2007

  	COVERAGE: Problem Sets 7, 8, and 9; Lecture Notes 8, 10, and 13 (where LNotes 10 and 13 can be found on the 2005 Lecture Notes page);
  		Ryden, Chapters 8 and 9, excluding Section 9.3.
  		The quiz will include big bang nucleosynthesis, at the level discussed in lecture. You may want to review this topic in Weinberg's The First Three Minutes, and/or Ryden's Chapter 10, but the quiz will not include any questions specifically aimed at testing this reading. Similarly, the quiz will include inflation at the level discussed in lecture, through Tuesday, December 4. You may want to review this topic in my article, Inflation and the New Era of High-Precision Cosmology, and/or in Ryden's Chapter 11, but the quiz will also not include any questions specifically aimed at testing this reading.
  	REVIEW SESSION: Wednesday, December 5, 2007, 7:00 pm, with Prof. Barton Zwiebach. Room 2-105.
  	SPECIAL OFFICE HOURS: Yi Mao will hold office hours on Tuesday, December 4, from 1:00 - 2:00 pm,
  		and on Wednesday, December 5, from 5:00 - 6:00 pm, both sessions in Room 8-308. Prof. Zwiebach will hold office hours on Tuesday, December 4, from 7:00 - 8:30 pm, in Room 8-320. These office hours replace the normal office hours this week for Zwiebach and Mao.
  	REVIEW PROBLEMS (with solutions): PS.GZ (1 up), PS.GZ (2 up), PDF (1 up), or PDF (2 up).
  		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 from this set of Review Problems.
  	FORMULA SHEET: PS (1 up) or PDF (1 up).

• Extra-Credit (OPTIONAL!) Paper:

  	Will be accepted until Wednesday, December 12, 2007, 5:00 pm.
  	Can add up to 3 points to your final course average.
  	Details and suggested topics: PS (1 up) or PDF (1 up).

Announcements:

• Friday, September 7, 2007:
  Starting this coming Tuesday, September 11, the lectures will be held in a new and larger room: 4-237.
• Tuesday, September 18, 2007:
  Starting next week, Tuesday September 25, Yi Mao's office hour will take place in Room 8-308.
• Wednesday, September 26, 2007:
  Today Prof. Barton Zwiebach will have an office hour and a half, 3:30 - 5:00 p.m., in his office, Room 6-305.
• Wednesday, December 5, 2007:
  There will be no recitation class this Friday, December 7.

2007 Lecture Notes

2007 Lecture Slides:

2007 Problem Sets:

2007 Quizzes:

2007 Grades:

2007 Grade Histograms:

2005 Course Information

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2005 Lecture Notes

2005 Problem Sets:

Review Problems for 2005 Quizzes:

2005 Quizzes:

2005 Quiz Solutions:

2005 Grades:

2005 Grade Histograms:

Review Problems for 2004 Quizzes:

2004 Quizzes:

2004 Quiz Solutions:

2004 Grades:

Final 2004 Grade Histogram:

2002 Lecture Notes

2002 General Information

• Course Information Sheet, 2002

• Approximate Course Schedule, in PS, PDF, and GIF.
  

• Errata to course handouts: PS or PDF.

2002 Quizzes:

2002 Quiz Solutions:

Review Problems for 2002 Quizzes:

Final 2002 Grade Histogram:

2000 Quizzes:

2000 Quiz Solutions:

Review Problems for 2000 Quizzes:

Final 2000 Grade Histogram:

1998 Quizzes:

1998 Quiz Solutions:

Review Problems for 1998 Quizzes:

Complete 1998 Grade Histograms:

1996 Quizzes:

1994 Quizzes:

TeX Macro Files:

• ggfontcm.tex (Font definition file)
• gmacro.tex (General macros, 1 up format)
• gsmacro.tex (General macros, 2 up format)
• euemacro.tex (Macros for 8.286)

File Types:

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Last modified: Wednesday, June 10, 2009 4:58 pm