/Physics321

This repository contains material pertinent to PHY321, Classical Mechanics at Michigan State University . Look up the jupyter-book at https://mhjensen.github.io/Physics321/doc/LectureNotes/_build/html/chapter1.html

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PHY321, Classical Mechanics I, Michigan State University, Spring 2023

We have planned this class partly as a flipped class where we would like to

  • use Mondays as regular lecture days
  • Wednesdays as a mix of lectures and problem solving (or just one of them depending on needs and feedback from you). The first two weeks we will lecture both Monday and Wednesday.
  • Fridays are planned as flipped classes, with problem solving and more.

We will have at our disposal room 2202 in the new STEM building.

The lectures are in person but will be available online as well via zoom. This will be done throughout the semester. It means that if you cannot be there physically (for many reasons), you can always attend via zoom. All lectures will be recorded and uploaded and made available to you via D2L and the website of the course.

We will thus have in-person classes and the lectures/sessions will be

  • made available to everybody via zoom as we teach (hybrid mode), you can attend from wherever you want. Zoom has also live transcripts of the direct lecture;
  • the videos will be posted right afterwards in case you could not attend (that is the video of the actual lecture, it is like a kind of podcast with movie). You can thus review the material which was discussed in peace whenever you want;
  • We use always a whiteboard (iPad) instead of a blackboard and these handwritten notes are also posted after the lectures;
  • We have extensive online material, lecture notes, exercises, projects and more, see the GitHub site of the course at https://github.com/mhjensen/Physics321, see https://mhjensen.github.io/Physics321/doc/LectureNotes/_build/html/chapter1.html for the online textbook and https://mhjensen.github.io/Physics321/doc/web/course.html for the weekly material.
  • We are going to make shorter videos which cover various topics and how to solve different exercises and more. They will be posted as we move on during the semester;

We have also created a Slack channel, see the link here to join https://join.slack.com/t/classicalmech-qzd7435/shared_invite/zt-1n2ynisck-C_dQ7X67VpRDPqZGOvYzhA You can also use https://classicalmech-qzd7435.slack.com

Here you will find a general overview of the course, with learning outcomes, teaching schedule etc.

Teaching team, grading and other practicalities

Lectures Location
Monday 3:00-3:50pm Wednesday 3:00-3:50pm Friday 3:00-3:50pm Room 2202 STEM building and digital (see zoom link below)
Instructor Email Office Office phone/cellphone
Morten Hjorth-Jensen https://github.com/mhjensen hjensen@msu.edu Office: NSCL/FRIB 2131 5179087290/5172491375/
Zoom link for lectures Meeting ID Passcode
https://msu.zoom.us/j/91523293661?pwd=akpyelF3dDBlQy9vVm4xN3pmd1BQdz09 915 2329 3661 Passcode: 739577
Office Hours for Morten
Monday/Wednesday/Friday 4-5:00pm or immediately after class
Teaching assistant Email Office Hour Zoom Link
Shuyue Xue xueshuy1@msu.edu Thursday 1.00-2.00pm https://msu.zoom.us/j/8131454131 (Passcode: 8131)
Learning Assistant Email Office Hour Where
Abby Baratta baratta2@msu.edu Thursdays 10am-12pm Helproom BPS
Additional office hour by Morten Zoom link
Tuesdays 8pm-9pm Same as lecture link above

Grading and dates

Activity Percentage of total score
Homeworks, 9 in total and due Fridays the week after 20%
First Midterm Project, due Friday March 3 25%
Second Midterm Project, due Friday April 14 25%
Final Exam project, due Friday May 5 30%
Extra Credit Assignment, homework 10, (due Monday May 1) 10%
Grading scale
4.0(90%) 3.5(80%) 3.0(70%) 2.5(60%) 2.0(50%) 1.5(40%) 1.0(30%)

Textbooks and lecture notes

Recommended textbook:

Teaching schedule with links to material

Weekly mails (Weekends/Mondays) with updates, plans for lectures etc will be sent to everybody before the week begins.

Week 2, January 9-13, 2023

Week 3, January 16-20, 2023

Week 4, January 23-27, 2023

Week 5, January 30- February 3, 2023

Week 6, February 6-10, 2023

Week 7, February 13-17, 2023

Week 8, February 20-24

Week 9, February 27- March 3, 2023

Week 10 Spring break, no lectures

Week 11, March 13-17, 2023

Week 12, March 20-24, 2023

Week 13, March 27-31, 2020

Week 14, April 3-7, 2023

Week 15, April 10-14, 2023

Week 16, April 17-21, 2023

Week 17, April 24- April 28, 2023

Week 18, May 1-5, 2023

Depending on your availability, we can have at least two sessions in order to discuss the final project.

  • Final Exam: The final exam will be a project similar to the two midterm projects. Deadline May 5 at midnight.

Learning outcomes

After the course you should:

  • be able to analyze forces that act on objects, apply Newton’s laws to determine the equations of motion, and solve these analytically and numerically,
  • Know about inertial frames and their relation to accelerating and rotating frames (non-inertial frames)
  • Know about forces, work, energy, angular momentum, linear momentum and conservation laws
  • Know about various types of motions, falling objects, objects moving in various fields
  • Know how to analyze energy diagrams and defining effective potential
  • Have knowledge about small oscillations, Harmonic oscillator potential and equations of motion
  • Have knowledge about transformation of variables that allow for analytical solutions, example two-body problems
  • Have knowledge about central forces and two-body problems, center-of-mass and relative coordinates as reference frame
  • Have knowledge about two-body scattering problems, classical scattering cross section
  • Have knowledge about Variational calculus and Lagrangian formalism
  • Know how to derive the equations of motion from the Lagrangian formalism with and without constraints (Lagrangian multipliers)

To solve many of these problems, we have through different projects and weekly exercises studied many systems numerically, from falling objects with and without friction/air resistance, small oscillations (harmonic oscillator), gravitational problems and other central force problems, rotations and the classical pendulum. To solve these systems, we have applied different algorithms for solving differential equations. These are

  • Euler-Cromer and Velocity-Verlet as energy conserving algorithms (time-independent forces)
  • Runge-Kutta family of algorithms for time-dependent forces We have also, in connection with for example the work-energy theorem studied methods for evaluating integrals. These are
  • Numerical integration using the Trapezoidal, midpoint and Simpson's rule.

You should also have acquired skills in structuring a numerical project, as well as having developed a critical understanding of the pros and cons of the methods and an understanding of their limits and what can go wrong. Computing means solving scientific problems using computers. It covers numerical as well as symbolic computing. Computing is also about developing an understanding of the scientific process by enhancing algorithmic thinking when solving problems. Computing competence has always been a central part of the science and engineering education. In particular, some of the competences that are important in the development of your own understanding of computations, we would like to emphasize

  • derivation, verification, and implementation of algorithms
  • understanding what can go wrong with algorithms
  • overview of important, known algorithms for solving mechanics problems (To a extent large differential equations and integration)
  • understanding how algorithms are used to solve mathematical problems
  • Making science (your results) reproducible
  • algorithmic thinking for gaining deeper insights about scientific problems