Mechanics
August - December 2008
Handout -- syllabus, textbooks, etc. (pdf file)
Homework 1 (pdf file) [Note: r = (x^2 + y^2)^(1/2) ]
Material covered in the lectures ----
Lecture
1: Newton's Laws; Some examples (gravity w/ and w/o friction,
etc.); Multiparticle systems (internal and external forces); Definition
and rate of change of "momentum," "angular momentum," and "energy";
Lecture
2: Conservative force field (potential exists iff work is path indep.
iff work along a loop is zero); Conservation of energy; One degree of
freedom systems - phase portraits, stability of fixed points, solution
by quadrature etc.; Galilean structure;
Lecture 3: Affine
transformations; Galilean transformations (GT); Consequences of
Galilean invariance for Newton's laws; PDEs invariant and
non-invariant under GT; Lorenz transformations;
Lecture 4: Calculus of variation; Lagrangian mechanics;