Physical Mechanics I
33 331
http://www-meg.phys.cmu.edu/physics_33331
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Professor Curtis Meyer
Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley
Wean Hall 8414
cmeyer@cmu.edu
(412) 268-2745
Experimental Medium Energy Particle Physics
My research is carried out at the Thomas Jefferson
National Accelerator Laboratory (Newport News, VA)
“Why are quarks forever trapped inside protons and
neutrons?” (The GlueX experiment)
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Textbook
Classical Dynamics of Particles and Systems
Stephen Thornton & Jerry Marion
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
2:
5:
6:
7:
8:
9:
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Newtonian Mechanics---Single Particle
Gravitation
Some Methods in the Calculus of Variation
Hamilton’s Principle---Lagrangian and Hamiltonian Dynamics
Central-Force Motion
Dynamics of Systems of Particles
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Schedule
Monday, Wednesday, Friday:
Thursday
Lecture
Recitation
We will try to work problems on Thursday, although
examples will be intermixed throughout the
course.
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Course Grade
Exam 1
Exam 2
Exam 3
Assignments
Final Exam
Total Possible
150
150
150
250
300
1000
Absolute Grading Scale
A
B
C
D
R
890 to 1000
790 to 889
690 to 789
590 to 689
below 590
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I reserve the right to lower the
cut-off points. I will not raise
the cut-off points.
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Exams
Exams will be held on Thursday evenings from 6:00pm
until 8:00pm. I will try to write approximately 1-hour long
exams.
If you have a conflict, please let me know about 1 week
in advance so that we can schedule alternate time.
On the week of the exam, class will be cancelled on
both Thursday and Friday.
Exam 1 Thursday September 28
Exam 2 Thursday October
26
Exam 3 Thursday December 1
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Assignments
Homework assignments will be due about every
two weeks during the lecture on Friday.
These will be long assignments, so you are responsible
for starting them early enough to be able to finish them
on time.
Please work together on the problems, but the solutions
that you hand in need to be your own work.
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Assignments
Your assignments should be treated as a report,
not simply some scribbled down answers.
All final solutions should be recopied neatly onto
the sheet that you hand in.
Briefly restate the the problem.
Define all variables and symbols.
Provide relevant sketches.
List physics principles involved.
Clearly identify approximations.
Clearly mark your answers.
If relevant, provide discussion on why your answer
is correct---dimensions, limits, ….
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Course Goals
Learning the concepts, laws and language of classical
mechanics, and how to apply them in solving physical problems.
To become more comfortable using various mathematical tools
such as calculus and differential equations to solve physical problems.
To develop other skills which will be useful to you in your
physics career such as approximation techniques, symmetry
arguments and dimensional analysis.
To improve your problem solving techniques by working on such
areas as reasoning, logic and intuition. These techniques
should be helpful to you in other areas of study.
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Mechanics
From earlier courses, we have treated mechanics as forces
acting on objects. These forces do work and either cause
the objects to move, or change some internal energy of the
object.
dp
 Fnet
dt
2
WFdr
1
d2r
m 2 F
dt
These lead to equations of motion:
x0
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y  g
z0
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Minimization
In this course, one of the new things that we will look at are
minimization principles---we minimize some quantity along
a path.
Lagrangian: L = T – U
Hamiltonian: H = T + U
We will develop a much simpler method of getting at
the equations of motion.
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Generalized Coordinates
We will be setting up problems in all sorts of coordinate
systems---Cartesian, Cylindrical, Spherical, or what ever
happens to be convenient.
Vector Calculus is a critical language for what we are
doing. We need to be familiar with this in all three of
the standard coordinate systems.
We are not going to cover chapter 1 explicitly. You would
be well advised to read through sections 1,2,3,9,10,11,
12,13,14,15,16 and 17. While we will review crucial
details as we need them, I am going to assume that
all material in these sections is known and can be used.
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