PHYSICS 505
Autumn 2005
Time and day:
Room: A114
Instructor: Prof.
Office: B401
(PAB)
Telephone:
5-2396
Email: sdellis@u.washington.edu
Office Hours:
M 1:30 to 3 PM & Tu 1 to 2:30 PM
TA: Sukjin Yoon
Office: B427
Telephone: 3-3904
Email: sjyoon@u.washington.edu
To send email to everyone in the class use - phys505a_au05@u.washington.edu
Texts: 1) Theoretical Mechanics of Particles and
Continua, by Alexander L. Fetter and John Dirk Walecka (
Comments: These texts together will allow us to cover
(“rapidly”) the usual topics of classical mechanics (see the syllabus) and an
introduction to chaotic behavior. (The
good news is that both books are available in paperback at reasonable
prices.) We will want to focus at least
somewhat on topics you likely have not seen in the typical undergraduate
course. As part of your preparation for
the rest of your graduate studies, we will make solving nontrivial physics
problems (i.e., the homework and the
exams) a high priority. Note that
covering classical mechanics in 10 weeks will be a challenge for all of
us. A list of reference texts (including
more standard graduate level course texts) is provided here.
A tentative
Syllabus can be found here.
The proposed general Exam/Homework schedule
is here.
Handout
I is here
HW
Assignments – You are encouraged to use Mathematica
whenever it will be helpful with the HW.
Information on using Mathematica
can be found here.
HW I (10/5/2005) (25 pts)
HW II
(10/12/05) (25 pts)
HW III
(10/19/05) (25 pts)
HW IV
(10/26/05) (25 pts)
HW V
(11/2/05) (20 pts)
HW VI
(1/9/05) (35 pts)
HW VII
(11/18/05) (23 pts)
HW
VIII (11/23/05) (18 pts)
HW
VIII Appendix
(11/30/05) (Notes on Numerical
Methods) (6 pts)
HW IX
(11/30/005) (21 pts)
HW X (12/9/05) (19 pts)
Lecture notes for Autumn 2005
Lecture 1
(9/28/05, 9/30/05) Introduction and Review: Newton’s Laws, Conserved Quantities
and Systems of N Particles
If you want a quick overview of Group
Theory, try my lecture notes from Phys. 557
Lecture 5
- Introduction to Group Theory
Lecture 2
(10/3/05, 10/5/05, 10/7/05) Central
Forces and Scattering
Lecture 3
(10/10/05) Inertial Reference Frames
Lecture 4
(10/12/05) Non-Inertial Reference Frames
Lecture 5
(10/14/05, 10/17/05, 10/19/05) The Methods of Lagrange
I
Lecture 6
(10/21/05, 10/24/05) More on Coordinate Transformations and Constraints –
Lagrange II
Lecture 7
(10/26/05, 10/28/05, 10/30/05) The Methods of Lagrange
III – Symmetries and Hamiltonians
Lecture
7 Appendix (10/31/05) Examples of
Flows in Phase Space
Lecture
8 (11/4/05, 11/7/05, 11/9/05) Small Oscillations
Lecture 9
(11/9/05, 11/14/05) Small Oscillation in Large N Systems
Lecture
10 (11/16/05, 11/18/2005) Rigid Body Motion
Lecture
11 (11/21/05)
Lecture
12 (11/23/05, 11/28/05) Anharmonic Motion
Lecture
13 (11/28/05, 11/30/05) Damped, Driven and Nonlinear Oscillators
(Associated Mathematica File: Mma
Notebook, PDF
file)
Lecture
14 (12/2/05, 12/05/05) Flows in Phase Space II (Appendix
A, Appendix
B)
Lecture
15 (12/05, 12/07/05) Introduction to Chaotic Motion
Lecture
16 (12/09/05) More about Chaos