PHYSICS 304

Spring 2008	Lecture:	MWF 9:00 - 9:50 AM ,	PandA 184	Daniel Finley
	(P451-054) Problem Session:	Tues.: 7:00 - 8:50 PM ,	PandA 184


Lagrange (1736-1813)		Isaac Newton (1642-1727)		Sofia Kovalevskaya (1850-1891)

Introduction to the Class

This is the second half of a 2-semester general introduction to phenomena associated with the name classical mechanics,
which, this semester, will include coupled oscillatory motions, rotational motion of rigid bodies, scattering theory,
as well as an introduction to phenomena that only have azimuthal symmetry,
and the more modern studies of nonlinear mechanics and chaotic motion.

We are using a recently-published text which seems quite good, with a good mix of the very classical parts of our subject combined with introductions to the modern research still continuing on nonlinear problems:

	*Classical Mechanics*, John R. Taylor; published by University Science Books.
		This publisher has an interesting website, http://www.uscibooks.com, although when you get there you must still do a title search for our particular text.

Over the course of the semester we plan to cover at least chapters 10-13 and parts of Chs. 14 and 16, as well as two or three interesting topics that I may pull from other places, and, maybe some of Ch. 15.
The class introduction contains a rather detailed description of the text, of the way the class will proceed, the details of the homework assignments, the Bonus Homework, the examinations, and the grading system.
The course syllabus will be a week-by-week description of what I currently believe the schedule of the course will be, including the timing of all the exams. In particular, you should use this syllabus as a reading guide for your text, being very sure to read the material in the text BEFORE the lecture, and then again afterwards, always noting any questions you have, so that you can ask for answers to them.
This is a new text, for both you and me, so it is worthwhile noting that the syllabus is still under construction, with your help, hopefully;
therefore, you should consult it regularly, for updates and/or changes.
It will definitely be added to from time to time, as noted there.

My Office: Physics & Astronomy Bldg., 800 Yale Boulevard, Room 168
Telephone: 277-8799 ; email: finley@tagore.phys.unm.edu

Office Hours:

my formal office hours are after class, from 10 to 11, and also Wedn. afternoon from 2 to 3 pm.
in my office, at ANY time that you come by and I am there without other people;
I am happy to talk with you about physics, math, or how they relate to the world, your text, and/or your assigned homework!

The class has Vaibhav Madhok as a Teaching Assistant, who will help with the nighttime Problem Sessions.
He will also be available for discussions and/or questions, holding office hours in the department lobby, from 4-5 pm on Tuesday afternoons.
You may also send him email by clicking here, suggesting a time and place for you to meet with him.

The problem session, P. 451-054, is very important, and you must take it as well; it is 1 credit hour and is graded CR/NC.
It will be very important for help with the problems, and especially with mathematical difficulties that you may have.
I will use some of that time to provide help for you with new mathematical applications,
which you may not recall well from your mathematics classes.
Also note that the examinations are given at this time, on those 3 days when we have exams.

Below are comments concerning requirements for the course. Please see the course information webpage for much more information:

There will be homework assignments due on Mondays and Fridays, to be turned in at the beginning of the class. Almost all of these assignments will include problems which require a computer to complete, using some form of programming.
There will also be some Bonus Homework Problems over the course of the semester: they are both more difficult and more interesting. Their grade goes on top of the average for all regular homework assignments, so that you could end up with a homework average higher than 100%
There will be three examinations, all of which will be given during the time for the problem session of the appropriate week, as noted in the syllabus.
Lastly, there will be a final examination, at the standard, announced time, which will not be comprehensive, but will cover only the material since the previous exam.
Assigned Homework will be very important in your process of learning the material being discussed. Therefore, it will count 25% of your final course grade. The assignments are put up as they are created, on the series of webpages listed below. Be sure to tell me if I have forgotten to post any one of them on time:
1. homework sets I, preparing for the first exam;
2. homework sets II, preparing for the second exam;
3. homework sets III, preparing for the third Exam.
4. homework sets IV, preparing for the Fourth Exam.

Links to the homework solutions are provided on the homework assignment pages. They should be available after the class in which you have turned them in.

Some of the homework problems will require the use of computer software capable of creating numerical solutions to differential equations, creating good plots, and of performing algebraic computations for ordinary and matrix algebra, such as MATLAB, Maple, or Mathematica.

There will also be Bonus Homework Problems this semester, which will be listed here. Please see the class introduction webpage for details concerning them.
1. First Bonus Homework Assignment due 25 February, 2008. [One may now retrieve the solution here.]
2. Second Bonus Homework Assignment due 26 March, 2008.
3. Third Bonus Homework Assignment due 25 April, 2008.

Links will be inserted below of three sorts:

Handouts for extra material not in the text, but covered in class.
- Notes on the exact behavior of a simple pendulum, and the Jacobi elliptic functions necessary to describe that behavior.
- Notes on gravitational fields of continuous mass distributions.
- Two different webpages from Phys. 262, for some references for Special Relativity:
  - A link for Lorentz transformations of various physical quantities, and
  - another link describing how to create and use Minkowski diagrams.
Links to various "demonstrations" shown in class, on the computer:
They are Maple files that demonstrate particular, useful things one might want it to do:
Some of them are presented as html-files, which can simply be viewed,
and also as actual maple files [.mws], which one must download, rather than view, and then use in a Maple program. Others are simply the downloadable Maple programs.
- Maple file shown in class showing behavior of various systems of coupled springs.
- Maple file shown in class with calculations for normal modes of several equal carts.
- Maple file on some of the behavior of elliptic functions.
- Maple, Version 11, file showing calculations for the driven, damped pendulum as discussed in Chapter 12 of Taylor, with many of his figures worked out.
  The Maple file will only work on Version 11; however, an html-version, i.e., a webpage to view the results, details, and plots, is given at this link.
- These are kept from the first semester of the class, for reference, if you like:
  - Plotting simple graphs: HTML-version, or Maple (10) version [Classic].
  - Creating graphs for (2-dimensional) projectiles under gravity with linear air drag: HTML-version, or Maple (10) version [Classic].
  - Creating graphs for (2-dimensional) projectiles under gravity with quadratic air drag: HTML-version, or Maple (10) version [Classic].
    Note that these graphs require the numerical solution of a coupled pair of ordinary differential equations.
  - Graphs of Phase Plane plots for some sample harmonic oscillators, undamped, underdamped, critically damped, and overdamped.
  - Graphs of various (bound) motions for a two-body, attractive, central force: comparing the behavior of the relative coordinate, the coordinate for the first body, and that for the second body, linked here only as a downloadable Maple file.
Links to other websites of use for the course.
- Coupled, 1-dimensional, linear Oscillators: a Computer Simulation for motion of several masses.

Below you will find various weblinks to interesting things happening in physics and astronomy.

Links to Exciting Physics News

Updated as I find time.

The regular weekly set of newsreleases from the American Institute of Physics can be found here.
latest values of the constants in physics
An index for pictures of famous physicists is at this location.
- One of their best sources is at the History of Physics page , run by the American Institute of Physics.

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Last updated/modified: 30 January, 2008

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