Syllabus for Physics 601 –Fall 2015

 

             (Check here frequently for important announcements related to the course)

Official Course Description: Title: Theoretical Dynamics Credits: 3; Grade Method: REG/AUD; Prerequisite: PHYS410 (or equivalent); Topics: Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics, two-body central force problem, rigid body motion, small oscillations, continuous systems.

 

Instructor:         Professor Kaustubh Agashe                                  Phone: (301)-405-6018

                             Office (note different building than lecture!): Room 3118 of Physical Sciences Complex (PSC), e-mail: kagashe_at_umd.edu

                               Office Hours (note locations and days carefully): Tuesday 2.30-3.30 pm. in 
Rm. 1303 of Toll building (this will be sort of an informal discussion session, i.e., you are not 
required to attend it, but it will be useful to do so!) and Thursday 3.00-4.00 pm. in Rm. 3118 PSC. It 
might be possible to have office hours at other times by appointment.

 

 

 

                                                                           

Teaching Assistant: Peizhi Du [email: peizhidu_at_gmail.com; office: of Rm. 3264 of; Phone: (240) 421-4888]; Office hours (note locations and days carefully): Monday 2.00-3.00 pm. in Rm. 3264 of PSC
and Wednesday 3.00- 4.00 pm. in Rm. 1303 of Toll building (this will be sort of an informal 
discussion session, i.e., you are not required to attend it, but it will be useful to do 
so!). It might be possible to have office hours at other times by appointment.
 
 

 

 

Lecture Time:                    12:30-1:45 pm. on Tuesday and Thursday

Lecture Room:                  Room 0115 of Hornbake Library (Building # 147)

Required Textbook: Classical Mechanics (3rd edition) by Goldstein, Poole & Safko

(abbreviated as GPS)

Recommended textbook: Mechanics (volume 1 of course of Theoretical Physics) by Landau and Lifshitz (LL) and lecture notes given at the University of Cambridge by David Tong (DT), posted here.

 

A note on prerequisite: this course assumes that students have had a strong undergraduate background in classical mechanics, for example, (roughly) at the level of the course Phys410 taught here (see for typical syllabi here), based on the textbook Classical Mechanics by John R.Taylor.

 

Homework: The homework assignments (problem sets) will generally be assigned here on Tuesdays, and should be handed in class the following Thursday or in folder outside Room 3118 of PSC by 5 pm. Late homework will be accepted at the discretion of the instructor (in particular, a valid documented excuse such a medical problem, religious holiday, or serious family crisis is required), but not after solutions have been handed out.

 

No homework will be dropped for any reason.  For full credit for any written homework or exam problem,

in addition to the correct answer, you must show the steps/justify your approach as much as possible.

 

Solutions to homework (and exams) will be posted here.

 

Exams: There will be only one exam given during the lecture period (1 hours 15 minutes in length), which will contribute to the final grade for the course. Tentatively, this is scheduled for October 29 (Thursday). The final exam will be given during the standard exam period (1:30-3:30pm on Friday, December 18). You must take the final exam to pass the course. There will be no make-up for the exams, unless there is a strong documented excuse (medical problem, religious holiday, or serious family crisis).

Details such as which topics will be covered in each exam, whether crib sheets will be allowed etc. will be posted later.


Grade: The semester grade will be based on the homework, one in-class midterm exam and the final exam
with the following tentative weights: one in-class midterm exam: 20%, homework: 50%, final exam: 30%

 

              

              

Attendance: Regular attendance and participation in this class is the best way to grasp the concepts and principles being discussed. Please try to attend every class and to read up the relevant chapter(s) of the textbook before coming to the class.

 

Some class notes will be posted here.

 

Academic Honesty: Note that, although you are encouraged to discuss homework with other students, any work you submit must be your own and should reflect your own understanding. In fact, the main way you will understand Physics (and thus do well on the exams) is by doing the homework (that too by yourself).

 

In addition, academic dishonesty, such as cheating on an exam or copying homework, is a serious offense which may result in suspension or expulsion from the University.

 

The University of Maryland, College Park has a nationally recognized Code of Academic Integrity, administered by the 
Student Honor Council.  This Code sets standards for academic integrity at Maryland for all undergraduate and graduate 
students.  As a student you are responsible for upholding these standards for this course.  It is very important for you to 
be aware of the consequences of cheating, fabrication, facilitation, and plagiarism. For more information on the Code of 
Academic Integrity or the Student Honor Council, please visit here.
 
To further exhibit your commitment to academic integrity, please sign the Honor Pledge (which covers all 
examinations and Assignments) and turn it in as “Homework 1”: 
 

"I pledge on my honor that I will not give or receive any unauthorized assistance (including

from other persons and online sources) on all examinations, quizzes and homework assignments 
in this course."

 

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tenure and promotion process. CourseEvalUM (go here) is open till December 13 for you to complete your

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have the privilege of accessing the summary reports for thousands of courses online at Testudo.

 

(TENTATIVE) schedule of Physics 601 topics, exams, and homeworks (more detailed schedule, for example, by chapter-sections, might be posted as part of the “announcements” here roughly at the beginning of each week; the homework assignments will also indicate this.).

 

Homework: typically 1 per week

 

Midterm exam: take-home, assigned October 28 (Wednesday), due on October 29 (Thursday)

Final exam: take-home, assigned December 14 (Monday), due on Friday, December 18

 

Topics:

 

(I)          Formalism:

 

               Lagrangian Approach (chapters 1, 2 of GPS; chapter 2 of DT)

 

o   Variational principle: Lagrange’s equations from Hamilton’s principle (or principle of stationary action) (GPS section 2.1-2.3; section 2.1 of DT); change of coordinates/variables (exercise 1.10 of GPS; section 2.2 of DT)

o   Form of Lagrangian from Galileo’s relativity principle (LL sections 1.3-1.5)

o   Systems with constraints (GPS section 2.4; section 2.3 of DT)

o   Lagrangian for particle in electromagnetic field (section 1.5 of GPS; section 2.5.7 of DT)

o   Symmetries and Conservation Laws (GPS section 2.6, 2.7; section 2.4 of DT)

 

               Hamltonian Approach (chapter 8 through 10 of GPS; chapter 4 of DT)

 

o   Hamlton’s equations (sections 8.1, 8.2 and 8.5 of GPS; section 4.1 of DT)

o   Poisson brackets (section 9.5-9.7 of GPS; section 4.3 of DT)

o   Canonical transformations (chapter 9 of GPS; section 4.4 of DT)

o   Liouville’s theorem (section 9.9 of GPS; section 4.2 of DT)

o   Hamilton-Jacobi equation and action angle variable (chapter 10 of GPS; sections 4.5 and 4.7 of DT)

 

(II)        Basic Applications

 

o   Central force problems (for example, gravity: Kepler problem) (chapter 3 of GPS)

o   Classical scattering theory (sections 3.10, 3.11 of GPS)

o   Small oscillations (one-body and many-body linear systems) (section 2.6 of DT ; chapter 6 of GPS)

o   Rigid body motion (sections 3.1-3.6 of DT; chapters 4, 5 of GPS)

 

              

(III)       Special theory of relativity (chapter 7 of GPS; will also be covered in Phys606: Electrodynamics)

 

o   Basic postulates: mechanics

o   Relativistic formulation of electromagnetism

 

      (IV)     Additional (time permitting)

 

o   Classical perturbation theory (chapter 12 of GPS)

o   Non-linear dynamics: aspects of chaos theory (chapter 11 of GPS)

o   Continuous systems: classical field theory (chapter 13 of GPS)