Physics 6321

Professor Olness

Graduate Mechanics: Spring 2009

• Lecturer: Professor Fredrick Olness

• Regrade Policy

• Standard Disclaimer

• Mathematica Courseware

• Solutions for Quizzes &Exams

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  Office hours: 201 Fondren Science and by appointment

• Contact:

  • Call or leave a message at (214) 768-2500, or

  • send me e-mail: olness@smu.edu

• Special:

  • Mathematica for symbolic and numerical problem solving

• Course Text:

  • Mechanics;   by H. Goldstein
    Publisher: Addison Wesley;
    Edition: You may use 2^nd or 3^rd edition.

• Relevant Web Sites:

  • To be posted ...

link to on-line material

Some topics we will cover:

• Newton's Laws

• D'Alemberts Principle

• Lagrange Equations

• Principle of least action

• Calculus of variations

• Kepler problem, and variations

• Rigid body mechanics

• Groups, Rotation matrices

• Small Oscillations

• Special Relativity

• Hamilton's Equations

• Legendre Transformation

• Canonical Transformation

• Poisson Brackets & connection to QM

• Hamilton-Jacobi Equations

• Canonical Perturbation Theory

• Chaos

References:

• Classical Mechanics. (2^nd or 3^rd Edition) by Herbert Goldstein

• Mechanics, by Keith R. Symon
  A classic! Provides an intuitive introduction to relativity, cosmology, quantum mechanics, and more.

• Classical Dynamics of Particles and Systems. by Thornton and Marion

• Mathematica for Physics. by Zimmerman and Olness

• Schaum's Outline of Mathematical Handbook of Formulas and Tables

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