Text: Classical Mechanics by John Taylor. (This and other possibly useful texts will be placed on reserve at the Library.) We will cover chapters 1 to 8, and chapter 11. (Chapters 9 and 10 will be covered in 110b.) Course Times: Lecture: TTh 8:00a-9:20a, PETER 103. Homework: Assigned weekly, due the following week, at the START of lecture. Midterms: Tues. Oct. 14 and Thurs. Nov. 6, during the lecture time. Bring bluebooks. Final: Tuesday Dec. 9, 8:00a-11:00a. No late or early final, check your schedule now! Grading: Homework=20%, Midterm 1=15%, Midterm 2=25%, Final=40%. For any questions about the grading, contact our course grader: Miriam Graf, mgraf@physics.ucsd.edu . Dan Arovas' Lecture Notes How to do well in this class. |
| Date | Topics (and link to lecture notes) | Homework |
| 9/25 | Introduction to dynamics | |
| 9/30 | Dynamics. Conservation of momentum, angular momentum, energy. | HW 1 (Due Oct. 7) solutions |
| 10/2 | More on conservation laws, and energy. | |
| 10/7 | Oscillations | HW 2 (Due Oct. 14) solutions |
| 10/9 | More on oscillations | |
| 10/14 | Midterm 1 (exam and solutions) | |
| 10/16 | Principle of least action. Other functionals | HW3 (Due Oct. 28) solutions |
| 10/21 | Euler Lagrange equations. Applications. Examples. | |
| 10/23 | More on Euler Lagrange equations. Applications. Examples. | |
| 10/28 | Nother's theorem, conservation laws | HW 4 (due Nov. 6) solutions |
| 10/30 | More conservation laws. More examples | |
| 11/4 | Constrained Systems. Examples. | |
| 11/6 | Midterm 2 (with solutions) | |
| 11/11 | Veteran's Day. No class. | |
| 11/13 | Central Forces | HW 5 (due Nov. 20) solutions |
| 11/18 | Central Forces, cont. | |
| 11/20 | Central forces cont. | |
| 11/25 | Coupled oscillators | HW 6 (due Dec. 4) solutions |
| 12/2 | Coupled oscillators cont. | |
| 12/4 | Hamiltonian Mechanics |