Office hours: Tue: 4.00-5.00 pm, Thurs: 4.00-5.00 pm
Text: Classical Mechanics, John R. Taylor, University Science Books (2005)
Grader: Jiaxin Wu
Office Location: 3005
Contact Email: wu.2339@osu.edu
Office Hours: Thur. 2:30-3:00 p.m. and Fri. 2:00-2:30 p.m.
Grading: There will be
(i) Homeworks (about 1 per week), 20% of grade
(ii) One quiz per week (approximately), 30% of grade
(iii) Two midterms (15% of grade each)
(iv) Final (20% of grade)
Approximate grade scheme: 90%: A, 85:%A-, 80%: B+, 75%: B, 70%: B-, 65%: C+, 60%: C, 55%: C-
In each homework you can earn up to 10 bonus points for presentation: these marks are for neatness as well as a full and clear explanation of all steps. Homeworks can be given to me in class, or put in the grader's mailbox. (Do not put in instructor's mailbox, as that may not be checked on the day of submission.)
If you will need to be excused for a quiz for a valid reason (illness or travel to a conference) then you need to let the instructor know by email. The grade for the quiz will be prorated: i.e., it will be replaced by the average for the other quizzes you take.
(a) Chapter 1 is review material from earlier courses. You are expected to read this on your own. There will be a 15 minute quiz on Friday Jan 16. The quiz will have questions taken from the one star (*) problems at the end of chapter 1.
(b) Assignment 1 (due Tue Jan 20)
(c) Reading material: Chapter 5: Oscillations: Sections 5.1, 5.2, 5.4, 5.5. 5.6. You should solve as many of the one star (*) problems from these sections, since the quiz at the end of week 2 will be taken from these problems.
Quiz 1 (Average 8.6)
(a) Reading: Chapter 6: Calculus of variations.
(b) There will be a 15 minute quiz on Friday Jan 23. The quiz will have questions taken from the one star (*) problems at the end of chapter 5 (Oscillations).
(c) Assignment 2 (due Tue Jan 27)
(a) Reading: Chapters 6, 7:
(b) There will be a 15 minute quiz on Friday Jan 30. The quiz will have questions taken from the one star (*) problems at the end of chapter 6 (Calculus of variations).
(c) Assignment 3 (due Tue Feb 3)
(a) Reading: Chapters 6, 7:
(b) There will be a 15 minute quiz on Friday Feb 6. The quiz will have questions taken from the one star (*) problems at the end of chapter 7, Sections 7.1-7.5.
(c) Assignment 4 (due Thurs Feb 12)
(a) Reading: Chapter 10:
(b) There will be a 15 minute quiz on Friday Feb 13. The quiz will have questions taken from the one star (*) and two star (**) problems at the end of chapter 11.
(c) Assignment 5 (due Thurs Feb 19)
(a) Reading: Chapter 10:
(b) There will be a 15 minute quiz on Friday Feb 20. The quiz will have questions taken from the one star (*) and two star (**) problems at the end of chapter 10.
(a) Reading: Chapter 13:
(b) The first midterm will be on Wed Feb 25. It will be for 55 minutes, during class time. There will be two questions: one on Lagrangians, and one on small oscillations.
(c) There will be a 15 minute quiz on Friday Feb 27. The quiz will have questions taken from the one star (*) problems at the end of chapter 13.
(c) Assignment 6 (due Thurs March 5)
(a) Reading: Chapter 13:
(b) Notes on canonical variables
Notes on the Hamilton-Jacobi equation
(c) There will be a 15 minute quiz on Friday March 6. The quiz will have questions taken from the material covered the past two weeks in class: simple computations of Poisson brackers, checking if variables are canonical, simple use of a generating function F(q,Q,t) to find a canonical pair.
(a) Reading: Chapter 12: Chaos
(a) Reading: Chapter 12: Chaos
Reading: Chap 16: Continuum mechanics
(b) The second midterm will be held on Tuesday March 24. The test will cover what we have learnt from Hamiltonians. It will be useful to read the notes posted on this web page on the relation to quantum mechanics (though the problems can be done without this knowledge). You should know other topics from the notes like generating functions. You will not be expected to solve the Hamilton-Jacobi equation.
(c) Assignment 7 (due Friday March 27)
(d) Notes on Green's functions
Week: March 30 - April 3
Reading: Chapter 14: Collisons
(a) Assignment 8 (due Tuesday April 7)
(b) There will be a 15 minute quiz on Friday April 3. The quiz will have questions from chap.14 (Collisons), taken from the one star and two star problems similar to the problems in the homework.
There will be a 15 minute quiz on Friday April 17. The quiz will be based on the notions of covariant and contravariant vectors in electrodynamics. This is material we have discussed this week in class, but is not in the text. It can however be found in these notes:
Final: The registrar's website says the final is at 10.00-11.45 on Tuesday May 5. Anyone who wants to take the final on this date should let me know; he can do that; the place will be determined after i know how many people want to take the exam then.
Many people have requested the final be held earlier. I have reserved the Smith Seminar Room (PRB, Room 1080) for Friday, May 1, from 10.30-12.30 for the final. Unless you need to take the final on May 5, you should come for the final on May 1 in the PRB.
The final on the regular day (Tuesday May 5), 10.00-11.45 am will be in the regular classsroom for the course.
The final will have questions on (a) Lagrangians (b) Hamiltonians (c) Special Relativity. For special relativity, you should be familira with the material in the notes on Relativistic Electrodynamics posted on this website.