Education in general and special theory of relitivity?

Question

I was always good in math and pre-calc was as far as I have gone due to my major in HS. In collage I never took serious math or physics classes. Now I am 28 and have a genuine interest to pursue mathematics and physics. I want to take continuing education classes and would like an opinion as to what type of course work would be a good start, how should I continue or how should I approach this. Understanding the theory or relativity on a mathematical level is something I would want to strive for. Thanks You

Answer 1

Special relativity won't require more than pre-calculus, it's often covered in the third semester of college physics classes.  Algebra should be enough for the math.  My college used Tipler's 'Introduction to Modern Physics', which covered most of special relativity, introduction to quantum mechanics, solid state physics, and some astrophysics.  It was a useful textbook.

For general relativity, well, I didn't take a course in that until my 4th year of graduate school in physics.  That's going to require calculus I, II, III, differential and partial differential equations, linear algebra, and topology.  And even then it's going to be confusing - and there's not a lot of point of really getting into the math of it if you're not using it every day.  A general overview, such as you might get from Brian Greenes books, is probably the way to go unless you want to work on the equivalence of a math and physics masters degree.