Physics 311 Western Illinois University--Physics Department

Dr. Mark S. Boley Fall Semester 2008

Dynamics: a junior/senior level physics course.

Text: "Analytical Mechanics", 7th Edition, by Fowles and Cassiday.

Room and Time: In Currens Hall 336 at 3:00 P.M. on MWF

---> If you expect the professor to be concerned about your success in this course, then please plan on faithful class attendance!!

Office Number and Phone: CH 422 (309) 298-1462 or email!!

Office Hours: MWF 2:00 - 2:40 and 4:00 - 4:40 pm EMAIL: MS-Boley@wiu.edu

Grading: There will be one midterm exam given and one comprehensive final exam. Exams will be in class and will usually be closed books and notes. No make-up exams will be given. There will usually be at least one homework assignment given each week with sufficient time allowed for completion. Your final course grade will be computed according to the following percentages: Homework: 50%

(Friday, October 17, 3 - 5 pm) Midterm Exam: 25%

(Wednesday, December 14, 3 - 5 pm) Final Exam: 25%

Homework: Homework assignments will always be due to the professor at the beginning of the class period. ABSOLUTELY NO LATE HOMEWORK WILL BE ACCEPTED!!. Some homework assignments may involve using a mathematical processor such as Maple or Mathematica. The moral of the story is--Get Your Homework In On Time And You Are Personally Responsible To See That The Professor Receives It. Since the professor will be doing all the grading in this course himself, you may not always get your homework back next class period, but this will be attempted as often as is humanly possible for the professor.

It is very important that you do all of your homework sets conscientiously and faithfully if you are to succeed in learning the course material well. Not only does a large percentage of your final grade depend upon it, but you will never truly understand some abstract material in this course until you solve problems. I encourage you to discuss homework problems together, but your final work on them must be independent, never directly copied from someone else’s paper. The professor will be alert to any such cheating, which will result in failure of that homework set, and repeated occurrences in course failure at the end. Your academic honesty is thus expected.

SYLLABUS IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITH NOTICE!!

(Course Outline On Back of This Page)

 

 

 

1. Mathematical Prerequisites for Understanding Vector Mechanics (Chapter 1)

A. Vector Algebra--Scalar and Vector Products

B. Coordinate Transformation Matrices and Rotated Coordinates

C. Vector Derivatives--Velocity and Acceleration in Cartesian Coordinates

D. Cylindrical and Spherical Polar Coordinates--Velocity and Acceleration

2. Newtonian Mechanics in One Dimension (Chapter 2)

A. Newton's Laws of Motion

B. Uniform Acceleration under Constant Force

C. Position-Dependent Forces and Kinetic/Potential/Total Energy

D. Velocity Dependent Forces, Fluid Friction and Terminal Velocity

3. Oscillations (Chapter 3)

A. Linear Restoring Forces and Simple Harmonic Motion

B. Energy Considerations

C. Damped Harmonic Motion

D. Forced Harmonic Motion and Resonance

E. Non-sinusoidal Driving Forces and Fourier Series

F. Stable and Unstable Equilibrium and Small Oscillations (Sections 11.1-2)

4. Three-Dimensional Motion (Chapter 4)

A. The Potential Energy Function and Conservative Force Fields

B. Gradient and Curl from the Del Operator

C. Separable Forces and Projectile Motion

D. Two- and Three-Dimensional Harmonic Oscillator

E. Motion of Charged Particles in Electromagnetic Fields

F. Constrained Motion

5. Non-Inertial (Accelerating) Reference Frames (Sections 5.1-2)

6. Central Forces and Gravitational Forces (Chapter 6)

A. Conservation of Angular Momentum from Newtonian Mechanics

B. Effective Potential and Energy Considerations

C. Circular Orbits, Stability, and Radial Oscillations

D. Equations of the Orbit in an Inverse-Square Field

E. Kepler's Three Laws of Planetary Motion

F. Rutherford (Alpha) Scattering and Repulsive Force Fields

7. Dynamics of Particle Systems (Chapter 7)

A. Center of Mass and Linear Momentum of a System

B. Angular Momentum and Kinetic Energy of a System

C. The Concept of Reduced Mass

D. Collisions in Laboratory and Center-of-Momentum Coordinates

E. Conservation of Momentum Applied to Rocket Motion (Variable Mass)

8. Lagrangian Mechanics (Chapters 10 and 11)

A. Generalized Coordinates and Lagrange's Equations of Motion

B. Applications--Conservative Systems, Conserved Quantities, Constraints

C. Coupled Harmonic Oscillators and Normal Mode Coordinates

Homework Solution Links can be found below ;

Homework Assignment #6

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