| Spring, 2009 | Daniel Finley |
| Tues. & Thurs. 9:30 - 10:50 PM , PandA 184 | |
| the Required Problem Session, Physics 451-054, meets Tuesday night from 7 to 9 pm [1 credit hour; CR/NC grade] | |
| Text: | Classical Mechanics , John R. Taylor; | |
| Week beginning | Chapters/Sections | Content/Comments | |
| 18 January
No Class | Chapter 11: | Coupled Oscillators | |
| Problem Session | Play with demonstrations of Coupled Oscillators | ||
| 25 January | completing Ch. 11, and extra material on pendula | exact behavior for a pendulum: Jacobi elliptic functions | |
| Problem Session | |||
| 1 February |
Extra material, on gravitational fields,
and azimuthal symmetry problems | Continue elliptic functions; then go to shape of earth due to rotation, and expansions away from an axis of symmetry: Legendre polynomials | |
| Problem Session | Review work on pendulum and elliptic functions | ||
| 8 February | Begin Ch. 10 | Parallel Axis Theorem; Rotation about a fixed axis | |
| Problem Session | Review work on behavior away from axis of symmetry | ||
| 15 February
Exam I, over Ch. 11 and extra above | majority of Ch. 10 | Inertia Tensor; Principal Axes; Precession of a top; Euler's equations | |
| Problem Session | Exam I, over Ch. 11 and extra material | ||
| 22 February Friday is last day to drop without questions | finish Ch. 10, sections 9 & 10 Return to Ch. 13: cover sections 4 thru 7 | Precession & Nutation of Gyroscopes; Area Conservation in Phase Space | |
| Problem Session | |||
| 1 March | Begin Ch. 12 on chaotic (nonlinear) motion | Simple Driven Pendulum | |
| Problem Session | |||
| 8 March
Exam II: Chs. 10 & 13 Sat. begins Spring Break | continuing Ch. 12 | ||
| Problem Session | Exam II, over Chs. 10 & 13 | ||
| 22 March | more Ch. 12. On Friday begin Ch. 14 | ||
| Problem Session | |||
| 29 March | remainder of Ch. 14 |
Collisions Scattering Cross Sections | |
| Problem Session | |||
| 5 April | Ch. 14 | ||
| Problem Session | |||
| 12 April Exam III, on Chs. 12 and 14 | Begin Ch. 16 | Continuum mechanics; the wave equation | |
| Problem Session | Exam III, covering nonlinear problems and scattering theory: Chs. 12 and 14 | ||
| 19 April | Ch. 16 |
Volume and Surface Forces Stress and Strain Tensors | |
| Problem Session | |||
| 26 April | Complete Ch. 16; begin Ch. 15 |
4-dimensional introduction to Special Relativity | |
| Problem Session | |||
| 3 May | Ch. 15 | ||
| Problem Session | |||
| Final Exam covers only Chs. 16 and 15. | |||
| Scheduled by the University for Tuesday, 12 May, 7:30-9:30 am. | |||