Course Schedule

Tentative Schedule

Please check back regularly for updates with each week’s topics (the general outline of the course can be found in the syllabus below.) The reading assignments refer to Lemos’ (L) and Goldstein’s (G) books, respectively.

Week Dates Topics Reading Homework Due
1 W 9/1 -
F 9/3		 Logistics, Themes, Netwonian Mechanics Recap L: 1.1
G: 1.1-1.2		 HW01 9/10
M 9/6 Labor Day (no classes)
2 W 9/8 -
F 9/10		 Newtonian Mechanics Recap (cont’d), Constraints, D’Alemberts Principle L: 1.2-1.3
G: 1.3-1.4		 HW02 9/17
3 M 9/13 -
F 9/17		 Lagrange Equations, Principle of Least Action, Variational Calculus L: 1.4-1.5, 2.1-2.4
G: 2.1-2.4		 HW03 9/24
4 M 9/20 -
F 9/24		 Constraints Revisited, Symmetries, Noether’s Theorem L: 2.4-2.7
G: 2.6-2.7		 HW04 10/1
5 M 9/27 -
F 10/1		 Symmetries (cont’d), Velocity-Dependent Potentials, Dissipation L: 1.6
G: 1.5		 – –
6 M 10/4 -
F 10/8		 Dissipation (cont’d), Recap L: 1.6
G: 1.5		 HW06 10/15
F 10/8 Midterm 1
7 M 10/11 -
F 10/15		 Central Forces, Effective Potentials, Orbits L: 1.7
G: 3.1-3.3, 3.5-3.7		 HW07 10/22
8 M 10/18 -
F 10/22		 Kepler Problem, Scattering L: 1.7
G: 3.9-3.11		 HW08 10/29
M 10/25 -
T 10/26		 Break Days
9 W 10/27 -
F 10/29		 Orbital Dynamics, Three-Body Problem L: 3.1-3.5, G: 3.11-3.12, 4 HW09 11/5
10 M 11/1 -
F 11/5		 Rotating Frames, Euler Angles, Inertia Tensor L: 3, 4.1-4.5
G: 4		 – –
11 M 11/8 -
F 11/12		 Rigid Body Dynamics L: 4.6-4.9,
G: 5		 HW11 11/20
F 11/12 Midterm 2 (tentative)
12 M 11/15 -
F 11/19		 Spinning Top, Coupled Oscillators, Normal Modes L: 4.9, 5.1, 5.3-5.7
G: 6.1-6.5		 HW12 11/29
13 M 11/22 -
W 11/24		 Normal Modes (cont’d), Hamiltonian Mechanics L: 5.4-5.7, 7
G: 6.1-6.5,8		 HW13 12/3
14 M 11/29 -
F 12/3		 Poisson Brackets, Canonical Transformations L: 7, 8
G: 8,9		 HW14 12/10
15 M 12/6 -
F 12/10		 Perturbation Theory, Relativity, Classical Fields L: 9,10,11
G: 10,12,13		 – –