Physics 3345

Advanced Mechanics - Spring 2002

Course Information

• Lecturer: Professor Randall J. Scalise
• Lecture meeting times and place: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10:00am to 11:00am in 11 Fondren Science
• Office hours: Tuesday and Thursday 11:00am-12:00noon in 104 Fondren Science and by appointment
• Contact:
  • Call or leave a message at 768-2504, or
  • Leave a note in the Physics Department Office - 106 Fondren Science, or
  • send me e-mail: <scalise@mail.physics.smu.edu>
• Text:
  • Marion and Thornton, Classical Dynamics, 4th edition,
• Errata for Marion and Thornton, 4th ed.
  • p41 above equation 1.121: "gradiant" should be "gradient". (Caught by E. Reiman)
  • p47 problem 1-32: It is confusing to call r-dot the magnitude of the velocity vector. r-dot should be the time derivative of the magnitude of vector r, which is very different from v. Change to "the quantites r and v are the magnitudes... ".
  • p66 equation (2.45): The "t" in the exponent should be capitalized.
  • p97 top: "u_horz" should be "v_horz". (Caught by S. Thornton [no relation])
  • pp104,624: problem 2-38 uses "alpha", the solution uses "a". (Caught by A. Gutierrez)
  • p119 In all three lines above Figure 3-8, "omega" with no subscript should be "w". (Caught by E. Rittenburg)
  • p121 First paragraph, fifth sentence: "...oscillate about zero several times..." should be "...oscillate about zero an infinite number of times..."
  • p128 Second sentence after equation (3.63): the natural angular frequency should be squared in the inequality.
  • p171 Figure (c) caption: "pendulums" should be "pendula".
  • p177 just above section 4.7: "phenomenom" should be "phenomenon". (Caught by A. Kramer)
  • p182 Example 4.3, line 3: "interation" should be "iteration".
  • p264 equation (7.125) in the denominator of first partial derivative on the right-hand side, the dot between the partial and the q should not be present.
  • p266 equation (7.133) first term: partial L should be delta L.
  • p391 2nd paragraph, line 4: (3.5%) should be (0.35%).
  • p391 2nd paragraph, line 7: the leading open parenthesis is never closed.
  • p422 two lines above equation 11.51: I_12 should be I_11. (Caught by A. Gutierrez)
  • p443 1st paragraph, line 6: "period predicted for the precession of the axis of rotation is 1/Omega" should be "2 Pi/Omega".
  • p465 In the first line of equation (12.24), the first term in parentheses is missing a plus sign.
  • p480 equation (12.85) the first term in the 1,1 entry of the A matrix should be "mgb" not "mgb^2".
  • p585 equation (B.2a) left-hand side: comma missing between arguments of F.
• Lecture Notes
• Grading: (Absolute) Letter Grade Break Points
  • Homework - x%
  • Final Exam - (1-x)%
    where 25 < x < 75
• Grade Summary: All the individual grades arranged by last four digits of student ID number
• Syllabus
• 2000 Calendar
• Official University Calendar
• University Holidays:
  • 4 September
  • 23-24 November
• Homework Assignments Due dates are strictly enforced.
  • Assignment #1 - (due Friday 1 September 2000) Read Chaos by James Gleick and redo the final exam from 3344: 3 pages PostScript 71892 bytes
  • Assignment #2 - (due Monday 11 September 2000): 1 page PostScript 35656 bytes
  • Assignment #3 - (due Monday 18 September 2000): 1 page PostScript 25407 bytes
  • Assignment #4 - (due Monday 25 September 2000): 1 page PostScript 27728 bytes
  • Assignment #5 - (due Monday 2 October 2000): 1 page PostScript 29645 bytes
  • Assignment #6 - (due Monday 9 October 2000): 1 page PostScript 76322 bytes
  • Assignment #7 - (due Monday 23 October 2000): 1 page PostScript 201291 bytes
  • Assignment #8 - (due Monday 30 October 2000): 1 page PostScript 28661 bytes
  • Assignment #9 - (due Monday 6 November 2000): 1 page PostScript 40301 bytes
  • Assignment #10 - (due Monday 13 November 2000): 1 page PostScript 24583 bytes
  • Assignment #11 - (due Monday 20 November 2000): 1 page PostScript 33662 bytes
  • Assignment #12 - (due Monday 4 December 2000): 1 page PostScript 27857 bytes
• Extracurricular Activities
  • REU - Research Experiences for Undergraduates
  • SPS - The Society of Physics Students
  • Undergraduate Research
• Recommended Reading:
  • Chaos by James Gleick
  • Mathematica Manual by Stephen Wolfram
  • Classical Mechanics 2nd ed. by Vernon D. Barger and Martin G. Olsson
  • Classical Mechanics by Herbert Goldstein (on reserve at the SIC)
• Relevant Web Sites:
  • Lorenz - Chaos mpeg movie. A demonstration of sensitive dependence on initial conditions for a Lorentzian non-linear system. You will see a string of 100 initial conditions which evolve over time.Credit goes to Tom Doucett trd@christa.unh.edu (thanks also to Kevin Short).
  • Follow - Chaos mpeg movie. The synchronization of two chaotic systems. The systems here are based on the Lorenz equations, where the x-coordinate of the first system is used to drive the second system into synchrony. You will see two traces representing the two systems. The traces will converge when synchrony is achieved. The second system will be "kicked out" again after convergence, so you can see that it resynchronizes quickly. Credit for the mpeg file again to: Tom Doucette, trd@christa.unh.edu
  • Colliding Galaxies
  • Gamelan Physics JAVA Applets
  • Centrifugal and Coriolis Java Applets
  • Frank Potter's Science Gems
  • C-ship - explore special relativity through starship flight simulation.
  • Relativity Links: Sites, movies, and literature.
  • Nobel Laureates in Physics
  • Dictionary of Scientific Quotations
  • Physicists on the Money
  • Images of Famous Physicists (from UCSB)
  • Pictures of Famous Physicists
  • Contributions of Women to Physics
  • The Annals of Improbable Research
    • The Ig Nobel Prizes
    • Barbecue Master George Goble

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