PHYS 300 - Analytical Mechanics I
Course Syllabus
Instructor: Assist. Prof. Bela Erdelyi
Faraday West 225
(815) 753-6484
Lectures: 2:00 - 3:15 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays
in Faraday West 200
Office hours: 12:30 - 2:00 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays or by
appointment
Textbook: G.R. Fowles and G.L. Cassiday, Analytical Mechanics, 7th edition, Brooks/Cole (2005), ISBN 0-534-49492-7
Grading: final grade will consist of
- Homework: 30 %
- Midterm exam: 30 %
- Final exam: 40 %
Homework set after each chapter. Due date 1 week later. No late homework accepted. You are encouraged to consult among each other and TAs/outside sources on homework, but do not hand in anything that you simply copied or do not really understand. Be neat and show all steps.
Midterm after Chapter 4 (exact date TBD). Final will cover all material, with emphasis on second half.
No academic dishonesty tolerated!
1. Introduction and vectors
2. Scalar, vector, and triple products. Change of coordinate system
3. Derivative of a vector, velocity, and acceleration. Various useful coordinate systems
1.
2. Kinetic and potential energy
3. Velocity dependent forces
1. Harmonic motion
2. Damped harmonic motion
3. Forced harmonic motion
1.
General principles. Potential energy and the
2. Separable forces
3. Harmonic oscillator in 3D
4. Motion of charged particles in electric and magnetic fields
5. Constrained motion
1. Accelerated coordinate systems and inertial forces
2. Rotating coordinate systems, and dynamics of particles in such systems
3. The Foucault pendulum
1. Gravitational force between a uniform sphere and a particle
2. Kepler's laws
3. Potential energy in central fields
4. Nearly circular orbits in central fields
1. Center of mass and linear momentum of a system
2. Angular momentum and kinetic energy of a system
3. Motion of 2 interacting bodies
4. Collisions
5. Rocket motion
1. Center of mass of a rigid body
2. Rotation about a fixed axis
3. The physical pendulum
4. Angular
momentum of a rigid body in laminar motion. Impulse and collisions involving
rigid bodies
1.
Postulates
and consequences
2.
Relativistic
kinematics and dynamics