--- title: General Relativity description: General relativity is the geometric theory of gravitation developed by Albert Einstein. Learners will understand how mass and energy curve spacetime, governing the motion of cosmic bodies, gravitational waves, and the physics of black holes. category: mathematics subcategory: mathematical-physics difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced url: /subject/general-relativity --- # General Relativity General relativity is the geometric theory of gravitation developed by Albert Einstein. Learners will understand how mass and energy curve spacetime, governing the motion of cosmic bodies, gravitational waves, and the physics of black holes. ## Available Resources 4 Books • 4 Courses • 3 Websites ## Courses ### 1. General Relativity (MIT 8.962) **Author:** Scott Hughes Graduate general relativity: differential geometry and tensors, Einstein's field equations, experimental tests, black holes, gravitational waves and cosmology. 23 full lecture videos, prose lecture notes and problem sets give learners the working tools used in Carroll-level study. **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/8-962-general-relativity-spring-2020/ **Tags:** general-relativity, differential-geometry, black-holes, cosmology, einstein-field-equations ### 2. Tensor Calculus and General Relativity Learn tensor calculus and general relativity with eigenchris! This course covers the math & physics for Einstein's theory of gravity. **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJHszsWbB6hpk5h8lSfBkVrpjsqvUGTCx **Tags:** tensor-calculus, general-relativity, differential-geometry, spacetime ### 3. Lectures on General Relativity Learn general relativity from world-renowned physicist Frederic Schuller. Explore Einstein's theory of gravity in this comprehensive video course. **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYhKFzKgHMIQmk1jkq9QctPVE_NMFvsFW **Tags:** general-relativity, differential-geometry, mathematical-physics, lecture-series ### 4. General Relativity Learn Einstein's General Relativity from Leonard Susskind's famous lectures. Explore gravity, spacetime, and cosmology in this free course! **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpGHT1n4-mAvcXwzOIz3dHnGZaQP1LEib **Tags:** general-relativity, spacetime, cosmology, physics-lectures ## Youtubes ### 1. Lectures on General Relativity by Frederic Schuller (Gravity and Light 2015) **Author:** Frederic Schuller Frederic Schuller's lectures and tutorials from the 2015 International Winter School on Gravity and Light, building general relativity from topology, manifolds, tangent spaces, connections, curvature and integration on manifolds. Afterwards learners can follow the geometric formulation of spacetime and gravity with mathematical rigour. **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFeEvEPtX_0S6vxxiiNPrJbLu9aK1UVC_ **Tags:** general-relativity, differential-geometry, smooth-manifolds, curvature, spacetime ## Websites ### 1. Perimeter Institute Recorded Seminars Free GR lectures and talks **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://pirsa.org/C11018 ### 2. Sean Carroll's GR Book Page Chapter three of Sean Carroll's widely used lecture notes, hosted by NASA/IPAC's Level 5 archive. Covers covariant derivatives, Christoffel symbols, parallel transport, geodesics, the Riemann tensor, and geodesic deviation as the geometric basis of gravity. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/March01/Carroll3/Carroll3.html **Tags:** general-relativity, curvature, tensor-calculus, lecture-notes, differential-geometry ### 3. Wolfram MathWorld **Author:** Eric W. Weisstein MathWorld is an online mathematics encyclopedia from Wolfram Research offering detailed, browsable articles on topics across the math spectrum, including algebra, geometry, calculus, and number theory. Each entry includes definitions, theorems, formulas, diagrams, worked examples, and links to further reading. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://mathworld.wolfram.com **Tags:** mathematics-reference, encyclopedia, abstract-algebra, number-theory, geometry ## Books ### 1. Spacetime and Geometry: An Introduction to General Relativity **Author:** Sean M. Carroll Graduate textbook on general relativity by physicist Sean Carroll, covering special relativity, manifolds and tensors, curvature, Einstein's equations, the Schwarzschild solution and black holes, perturbation theory and gravitational waves, and cosmology. Readers learn to do calculations in curved spacetime. **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1108488390?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** general-relativity, differential-geometry, black-holes, gravitational-waves, cosmology ### 2. Gravitation **Author:** Charles W. Misner, Kip S. Thorne, John Archibald Wheeler The classic 1973 graduate text on Einstein's theory, covering differential geometry, the field equations, black holes, gravitational waves, and cosmology. Its two-track structure lets readers work through the physics before the full mathematical machinery. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0691177791?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, science-research, mathematical-physics ### 3. General Relativity **Author:** Robert M. Wald A rigorous graduate treatment built on modern differential geometry, developing manifolds, curvature, and Einstein's equations before black holes, causal structure, singularity theorems, and quantum field theory in curved spacetime. Assumes comfort with abstract mathematics. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0226870332?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, science-research, mathematical-physics ### 4. A First Course in General Relativity **Author:** Bernard Schutz Schutz builds the required tensor calculus and differential geometry from scratch, then applies them to Einstein's field equations, gravitational waves, stellar structure, black holes, and cosmology. Suited to physics undergraduates meeting relativity for the first time. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0521277035?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, science-research, mathematical-physics --- *This content is part of Dantes.io - Your Treasure Map to Knowledge* *Curated by humans at Dantes.io. Personal study use welcome; republishing this curation requires permission (team@dantes.io).* View this page online: https://dantes.io/subject/general-relativity