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I'm 15 this year and have a passion in physics What kind of math do I need to tackle general relativity? Also what year in uni do we learn about general relativity?

Qmechanic
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Russell Yang
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    Tensor analysis mainly. You can learn it by yourself since it gets easier after a while. Also proficiency in calculus since it is used extensively in general relativity. – Horus Sep 21 '15 at 09:53
  • You can learn about it now, if you wish. There are some pretty good lecture series on the internet. It's exactly the same material that you would be taking a couple years from now in university. If you have the stamina to watch them and to learn in parallel from the course materials and books, there is really nothing to stop you from understanding it within a year, or two. How much you can get out of it depends entirely on how good you are with math and physics concepts. Good luck! – CuriousOne Sep 21 '15 at 09:58
  • Try https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRZgW1YjCKk. That's Susskind in Stanford... a $250k education for free. :-) – CuriousOne Sep 21 '15 at 10:03
  • @CuriousOne I watched that one. It was great though sometimes the students wasted the time by asking silly questions. – Horus Sep 21 '15 at 10:07
  • The last question depends on the Uni, I never saw it in my 4 years, but I know some people who had it as seniors. – Kyle Kanos Sep 21 '15 at 10:08
  • @Horus: I watched some of Susskind's lectures and they strike me as fairly even treatments of whatever he is teaching. It shouldn't be too hard to follow and the good thing about Youtube is that one can rewind! Try that in an auditorium! – CuriousOne Sep 21 '15 at 10:09
  • Also, this question has been asked before on this site (probably several times, but the mobile search isn't particularly useful for searching) – Kyle Kanos Sep 21 '15 at 10:10
  • @KyleKanos: Don't know about the US system, but in Germany one is free to take any class at any time. Nobody would have said a thing if any of us had taken GR in the first semester. It may have been a little beyond almost everybody's level at the time... but technically there were no rules about it. – CuriousOne Sep 21 '15 at 10:21
  • Sorry about asking it again @KyleKanos, mobile search is bad...... – Russell Yang Sep 21 '15 at 10:23
  • @CuriousOne Seriously? I think i wanna go to Germany for my university education now. – Horus Sep 21 '15 at 11:30
  • This should teach you all the math you will need for GR. http://www.gravity-and-light.org/lectures –  Sep 21 '15 at 15:45
  • @Horus: Yep, that's the power of free higher education. You don't have to be afraid of an administrator sitting in your back asking you what the heck you are thinking stealing "their product". Socialism works, at least in these matters. :-) – CuriousOne Sep 21 '15 at 18:40

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