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As you know the exam will be oral this year, and proceed via zoom on June 3rd. In order to plan that day, it is absolutely essential to have an idea about how many of you will participate, and to test  the equipment beforehand (audio+video must be working, and you must be able to write down equations by hand such that the censors can see them). 

Please indicate here whether you want a "slot" reserved for you on June 3rd. Also note that the official grade will only be pass or fail. If you are interested, on a totally voluntary basis, we may offer to extend the exam by 10-15 minutes and afterwards provide an informal / "would be" grade on the familiar A-F scale. Please indicate this is well, as this requires planning and setting up the slots correspondingly.

Equipment test...

Today I forgot to mention that I need to attend a faculty meeting next Monday. Our lecture discussion will thus start slightly earlier, at 12.00 pm, and finish at 13 pm.

As it is not possible to arrange written school exams this spring due to the corona-situation it is decided that the final exam in FYS4160 will be conducted as an oral exam. The exam will be conducted digitally via the videoconference platform zoom due to the corona-situation. You will receive further practical information regarding the exam after Easter.

The course will be graded Passed/Fail, in adherence to the guidelines for examinations at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences in the spring semester of 2020. The guidelines are published here: https://www.mn.uio.no/english/about/hse/corona/examination-2020.html

For further information regarding zoom please see  /english/services/it/phone-chat-videoconf/zo...

I just put out the final lecture before Easter, to be discussed on Monday. It's slightly longer than usual -- but that allows us to finish the discussion of black holes before the break (also, the last part is really more just a technical comment; you can certainly skip over the proof unless you are really interested in the details).

_{[NB: If anyone has experience with handling mp4 files, and manages to merge GR_lecture_20_2a.mp4 and GR_lecture_20_2b.mp4 into a single mp4 file, that would be greatly appreciated. I managed before, for similar setups (using ffmpeg), but for some unknown reason this doesn't seem to work in this case...]}

I just put out the next problem set, number 10. Note that the previous one will be discussed tomorrow (April 1). Jake will set up zoom meetings for those group exercise sessions, and let you know about the login link.

As for the lectures (or, rather, the discussion about the online lectures), these will until further notice always be accessible under the same link. Next lecture is next Monday (April 6), then we resume after the Easter break (Tuesday, April 14).

I just put out the first lecture. It's split into 4 videos (1, 2, 3, 4), and there is also one pdf file that contains all `black boards' that have been produced during these recordings. Everything that is covered here will be discussed on Monday, March 30.

In the future, I will follow the same format and try to put out 3-4 videos of up to about 20' length, along with a single pdf file covering the whole lecture. The lectures to be discussed on Mondays will...

Here you can find a pdf screenshot of what I wrote today on the digital blackboard about how the lectures will continue starting from next Monday.

I also updated the (time-line for the) syllabus. Note that I plan to have one extra-ordinary lecture on Monday April 6, to partially make up for the time we lost. This would have been the Easter vacation break, but I guess no one is going anywhere this time, anyway... Let me know if there are strong objections against this additional slot, in which case we can try to move it to Friday the week before.

Happy digital studying!

As you know, all teaching activities will have to be continued in a virtual fashion. To get started, there will be a zoom meeting on Monday 23/03 during ordinary lecture time, i.e. 12.15-14.00.

Just follow the link to join (for further options, see below). For those of you have never used zoom before it may also be good to check the info pages of the university and make sure that everything is working. Please let me know if there are technical reasons that prevent you from joining the meeting!

_{Torsten Bringmann is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.}

_{Topic: FYS4160
Time: Mar 23, 2020 12:00 AM Oslo}

_{Join Zoom Meeting...}

On Tuesday March 31 (12-14) there will be exercises, while on Wednesday April 1 (14-16) there will be a lecture.

The lecture today is CANCELLED (I have to bring my daughter to the hospital).

In week 9 lecture and exercises will be swapped:

Monday (Feb 24): group exercises

Tuesday (Feb 25): lecture

Wednesday (Feb 26): lecture

The first problem sheet, to be discussed next week, is now online. Remember that you can hand in written solutions during the exercise session, if you are also willing to present these solutions, and that this will count as up to 10% of the final exam grade.

I also noted that most of you have enrolled in the online forum -- very good! Now you just have to start the discussion... :) Remember that this is the more fun, and the more efficient, the more people actively participate!

Register here to take part in discussions right away.

The course starts in week 3, on January 13, and there is now a tentative syllabus available.

Before starting, however, it is a very good idea to fresh up your knowledge from previous courses!

Lectures will typically be on Mondays and Tuesdays, while exercise classes will typically be on Wednesdays. All take place in the Kristian Birkeland auditorium (?157), Mondays and Tuesdays at 12am, Wednesdays at 2pm.

Welcome to the fascinating world of General Relativity!

Torsten Bringmann