Physics 3344

Classical Mechanics - Fall 1997

Course Information

• Lecturer: Professor Randall J. Scalise
• Lecture meeting times and place: TR 3:30-4:50pm in room 110 Fondren Science
• Office hours: in 104 Fondren Science by appointment
• Recitation: Thursdays at 6:00pm in 11 Fondren Science
• 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>
• Texts:
  • Marion and Thornton, Classical Dynamics, 4th edition, and
  • Shankar, Basic Training in Mathematics.
    (These will also be used in Physics 3345.)
• Errata for Marion and Thornton, 4th ed.
  • 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.
  • 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".
  • p182 Example 4.3, line 3: "interation" should be "iteration".
  • 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.
  • p465 In the first line of equation (12.24), the first term in parenthses is missing a plus sign.
  • p585 equation (B.2a) left-hand side: comma missing between arguments of F.
• Lecture Notes: on reserve in the Science Information Center
• Exam Dates:
  • Exam 1 - Thursday 9 October 1997 3:30-6:00pm in room 110 Fondren Science
  • Exam 2 - Tuesday 18 November 1997 3:30-6:00pm in room 110 Fondren Science
  • Exam 3 - Thursday 4 December 1997 3:30-6:00pm in room 110 Fondren Science
• Grading: (Absolute) Letter Grade Break Points
  • Homework - 40%
  • Exam 1 - 20%
  • Exam 2 - 20%
  • Exam 3 - 20%
• Grade Summary: All the individual grades arranged by last four digits of student ID number
• Syllabus
• 1997 Calendar
• University Holidays:
  • Monday 1 September (Labor Day)
  • Thursday and Friday 27-28 November (Thanksgiving)
• Homework Assignments Due dates are strictly enforced. Solutions are posted in the Science Information Center.
  • Assignment #1 - 1 page PostScript 42944 bytes, PDF 92931 bytes
  • Assignment #2 - 1 page PostScript 24038 bytes, PDF 100982 bytes
  • Assignment #3 - 1 page PostScript 19035 bytes, PDF 70346 bytes
  • Assignment #4 - 1 page PostScript 30725 bytes, PDF 122210 bytes
  • Assignment #5 - 1 page PostScript 30701 bytes, PDF 84033 bytes
  • Assignment #6 - 2 pages PostScript 39194 bytes, PDF 136895 bytes
  • Assignment #7 - 1 page PostScript 32260 bytes, PDF 83585 bytes
    • Mathematica program 31572 bytes
    • C program 1159 bytes
  • Assignment #8 - 1 page PostScript 35921 bytes, PDF 119920 bytes
  • Assignment #9 - 1 page PostScript 29859 bytes, PDF 61154 bytes
  • Assignment #10 - 1 page PostScript 29193 bytes, PDF 89639 bytes
  • Assignment #11 - 1 page PostScript 29423 bytes, PDF 85033 bytes
  • Assignment #12 - 1 page PostScript 26287 bytes, PDF 62946 bytes
• Anonymous Feedback
• Extracurricular Activities
  • REU sites for Physics, Materials, and Astronomy
  • 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
  • Java Physics Resources
  • 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
  • Physics Unit Conversion Page
  • The Annals of Improbable Research
    • The Ig Nobel Prizes
    • Barbecue Master George Goble

Back to Professor Scalise's Home Page