University of
Maryland Department of Physics
PHYS
410 - Classical Mechanics
Prof. Hall - Spring 2020
- Final Exam will
be optional (updated 5/13/20)
-
Students who submit homeworks #9, #10, and #11 will have the
option to complete the course without a final exam.
- For students that opt out of the final, the grading scale
will be: 33% for homework, 33% each for mid-term exams 1 and
2. The letter grade will be calculated according to the 10
point grading scale indicated in the syllabus.
- Homeworks #9, #10, and #11 must be completed with sufficient
effort to demonstrate proficiency on this portion of the
course material. I will make a judgement about whether this
requirement has been satisfied by each student.
- Students who would like to opt out of the final exam should
inform me by email by Wednesday May 6th. I will confirm that
the student has satisfied all requirements by Monday May 11th.
- For students taking the final exam:
- The exam will cover only the material on homeworks 9, 10,
and 11 (Taylor chapters 9 and 10.) The exam will be held on
Thursday May 14th, or by special arrangement on an alternate
date.
- You will be allowed to use:
- Students taking the exam will
receive it by email on Thursday May 14th at 8 am.
- Students will be allowed three hours
to complete the exam.
- Solutions should be uploaded to ELMS
by 5 pm on Thursday May 14th.
- How to study for the exams:
- Review the homework problems.
- Review your class notes and my lecture notes.
- Review the textbook.
- Review the optional homework problems.
- Watch the exam review video, to be posted on ELMS.
- Week 15 schedule (May 11 -
May 15):
- Tuesday May 12th.
- 11:00 am: Group office hours. See
instructions below.
- Also watch the Panopto Video Lectures for
final exam review
- Thursday May 14th
- Final exam will be held between 8 am and 5 pm.
- The next group office
hours will be held on Tuesday May 12th at 11:00 am.
- Join with zoom:
https://umd.zoom.us/j/5608509432
- Or by phone. Dial any
of these numbers:
+1 669 900 6833
+1 346 248 7799
+1 301 715 8592
+1 253 215 8782
+1 929 436 2866
+1 312 626 6799
- Meeting ID: 560 850 9432
- I will be available via zoom video conference for group
office hours during our usual class periods: Tuesday &
Thursday at 11:00 am and Friday at 10:00 am.
- Students are invited to attend group office hours and
discuss the course material with me and with each other.
- I am also available for one-on-one phone calls or zoom
sessions via appointment. Contact me by email.
- Instructions for the Panopto Video
Lectures
- The video lectures can be found in the left-hand side menu
of Phys 410 on ELMS. Click on 'Panopto Recordings'.
- They are organized in folders according to homework
assignment.
- Important:
- After entering the folder, sort the videos *by name* to
see them listed in the order in which they are intended to
be viewed.
- There may be more than 10 videos in a folder. Scroll to
the bottom of the list and click on 'Results per page 25' to
see all the videos listed on a single page.
- Click here for
screen shot instructions.
- The videos run between two and ten minutes each.
- The filenames contain a date. For example, 033120
corresponds to March 31, 2020. This is the day that I
recommend that you watch the videos (or earlier).
- If you have difficulty viewing the videos for any reason,
such as limited internet bandwidth, please contact me.
- Index of Video Lectures:
- For Homework #7 (Hamiltonian Mechanics, Taylor Chapter 13):
- View by March 31: 11 videos, 51 minutes. Content: Solving
problems in Hamiltonian Mechanics, relationship between the
total energy and the Hamiltonian.
- For Homework #8 (Central Force Motion, Taylor Chapter 8):
- View by April 2: 9 videos, 53 minutes. Content: Reduced
mass, equations of motion, effective potential.
- View by April 3: 6 videos, 40 minutes. Content: Orbital
equation of motion, and its solution for the inverse square
law.
- View by April 7: 8 videos, 56 minutes. Content: Orbital
parameters and changes of orbit for the inverse square law.
- View by April 9: 7 videos, 60 minutes. Content: Orbital
precession.
- Mid-term exam #2 review:
- View by April 10: 6 videos, 34 minutes.
- For Homework #9 (Rigid Body Kinematics, Taylor Chapter 10):
- View by April 16: 5 videos, 45 minutes. Content: Rotations
in 3D, omega vector, inertia tensor.
- View by April 17: 4 videos, 46 minutes. Content: Inertia
tensor general expression, and for a flat pancake and a
uniform cube.
- View by April 21: 7 videos, 54 minutes. Content:
Diagonalizing the inertia tensor, principal axes, and
principal moments.
- For Homework #10 (Rigid Body Dynamics, Taylor Chapter 10):
- view by April 28: 10 videos, 78 minutes. Content: Euler
Equations, Free Symmetric Top.
- view by April 30: 9 videos, 72 minutes. Content: Chandler
wobble, tennis racket theorem, gyroscope Lagrangian
- view by May 1: 5 videos, 54 minutes. Content:
Gyroscope precession and nutation.
- For Homework #11 (Non-inertial frames, Taylor Chapter 9):
- view by May 5th: 5 videos, 52 minutes. Content:
Accelerating frames of reference, tides, rotating coordinate
systems.
- view by May 7th: 4 videos, 39 minutes. Content:
Centrifugal and Coriolis forces; free falling bodies.
- view by May 8th: 2 videos, 20 minutes. Content: Foucalt
pendulum
- Final exam review:
- view by May 12th: 3 videos, 34 minutes. Content: Taylor
Chapters 10 and 9.
- Course Info:
- Videos:
- Historical:
- Stokes Theorem
- Oscillations
- Orbital motion
- Torque-free
rotations: Tennis Racket theorem ("Dzhanibekov effect" in
Russia)
- Precession of a
torque-free symmetric top
- Precession of the equinoxes
- Gyroscopes, with
gravitational torque.
- Pseudoforces
- Wikipedia:
- Homework:
- Lecture Notes: