PHY 820 Fall 2012

PHY 820 - Classical Mechanics

Fall 2012

Two-body central force problem, Hamilton's principle, Lagrangian and Hamiltonian equations of motion, variational methods, small oscillations, classical fields.

Lectures: MWF 11:30am-12:20pm in 1420 BPS

Lecturer: Pawel Danielewicz
Email: danielew@msu.edu
Phone: (517) 908-7330, 5-9672 x 330 from campus
Office: 2057 Cyclotron
Office hours: MTu 1:50-2:40pm (or by appointment)

Grader: Chaoyue Liu
Email: liuchaoy@msu.edu
Phone: (517)348-5311
Office: 1300 BPS
Office hour: M 3-4pm in 1248 BPS (Charles J. Strosacker Center)

Required Textbook: Classical Mechanics*, Herbert Goldstein, Charles Poole and John Safko, 2002, 3rd edition
Publisher: Addison Wesley
ISBN-10: 0201657023, ISBN-13: 978-0201657029

Other Potentially Useful Texts:
More concise: Mechanics*, L. D. Landau and E. M. Lifshitz; Classical Mechanics: A Modern Pespective, V. D. Barger and M. G. Olsson
Some topics more expanded: Classical Dynamics: A Contemporary Approach*, J. V. Jose and E. J. Saletan

*On reserve at the Engineering Library.

Quizzes: The quizzes will be unannounced. Extra 5% has been added to the grade contribution from the quizzes, in order to compensate for any absences and getting caught by surprise.

Homework: Weekly homework assignments, see the schedule, will be normally due at the Wednesday lecture, for the material from the preceding week.

Exams: There will be three midterm exams and final. The final plays also the role of a subject exam within the departmental graduate degree requirements.

Schedule

Grading policies

Angel site for the course will be used for storing lecture notes and homework solutions, both under 'Lessons', and for accessing class scores, under 'Report'.

Last revised: November 5, 2012.