PHY 711 Classical Mechanics and Mathematical Methods
General Information
This course is a one semester survey of Classical Mechanics and
Mathematical Methods at
the graduate level, using the textbook: Theoretical Mechanics of
Particles and Continua by Alexander L. Fetter and John Dirk Walecka
(McGraw-Hill, 1980)
(now published by
Dover ) --
F&W.
Having endured the difficulties brought by the pandemic during the past two years,
we are all looking
forward to moving to the "normal" classroom interactions, mindful of the need
for careful monitoring of the health situation and using tools such as zoom
when necessary or convenient.
The course will consist of the following components:
In person meetings MWF 10-10:50 AM in Olin 103.
Starting with the second meeting,
the sessions will focus on discussion of the
material, particularly answering your prepared and spontaneous questions.
Asynchronous review of annotated lecture notes and corresponding
textbook sections. Starting with
Lecture 2, the annotated lecture notes will be available one day before the
corresponding synchronous online discussion. For each class meeting,
students will be expected
to submit (by email)
at least one question for class discussion at least 3 hours before the
synchronous
online meeting. The practice
of formulating questions is one of the important tools of science.
Note that there are no "silly" questions.
Homework sets. Typically there will be one homework problem associated
with each synchronous meeting.
There will be two take-home exams, one at mid-term and the other
during finals week.
There will be one project on a chosen topic related to mechanics and/or
mathematical methods.
There will be weekly one-on-one meetings of each student with the
instructor to discuss the course material, homework, and/or projects. These
may be face-to-face or online as appropriate.
It is likely that your grade for the course will depend
upon the following factors:
*
In general, there will a new assignment after each lecture,
so that for optimal learning, it would be best to complete each assignment
before the next scheduled lecture. According to the honor system, all work
submitted for grading purposes should represent the student's own best
efforts.
Dates of note:
- Classes begin: Mon. Aug. 22, 2022
- Take home mid term exam: Oct. 10-12, 2022
- Fall break: Fri. Oct. 14, 2022
- Mid term grades due: Mon. Oct. 17, 2022
- Thanksgiving Holiday: Nov. 23-27, 2022
- Last day of class: Fri. Dec. 2, 2022
- Take home final exam: Dec. 5-12, 2022
- Final grades due: Thur. Dec. 15, 2022