Learning GR with Leonard Susskind: Prerequisites Needed?

[docnet]

TL;DR Summary

How good are Leonard Susskind's lectures on YouTube for learning GR?

I took differential geometry and introductory physics sequence in college, but not special relativity.

How good are Leonard Susskind's lectures on YouTube for learning GR?

Are there better sources to learn from?Thank you

Edit: is learning SR a prerequisite for GR?

 

[Dale]

Summary:: How good are Leonard Susskind's lectures on YouTube for learning GR?

Edit: is learning SR a prerequisite for GR?

Yes. GR reduces to SR locally. That fact is used a lot. If you don’t understand SR then that will be confusing.

 

[Orodruin]

Even more than that, SR is (as the name suggests) a special case of GR so effectively you will be learning both at the same time if you start from GR. However, in many cases the discussion in a typical GR course will involve referring back to the special case of SR. Starting with GR will therefore often require you to accept some things at face value as reasonable.

 

[nucl34rgg]

I'd recommend checking out the GR lecture series from MIT OCW rather than that one. Susskind aimed his at a general audience. The ones from MIT are an actual course.

 

[vanhees71]

I just learned from an advertizement by Springer that R. J. Adler wrote a brandnew textbook on GR for advanced undergraduates. As his older graduate-level book (1965, 1975) it looks like a gem but is much more introductory

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61574-1

I think for a first encounter with GR you need a good understanding of SR. My favorite at the introductory level for both is Landau and Lifshitz vol. 2.