PHY-611 CLASSICAL MECHANICS

Credit Hours: 3(3-0)

Pre-requisites: Mechanics

Review of Newtonian Mechanics: Frame of reference, orthogonal transformation, angular velocity and angular acceleration, Newton’s laws of motion, Galilean transformation, conservation laws, systems of particles, motion under a constant force, motion under variable force, time-varying mass system.

Central Force Motion: The two-body problem , effective potential and classification of orbits, Kepler’s laws, stability of circular orbits, hyperbolic orbits and Rutherford scattering, center of mass co-ordinate system, scattering cross-sections.

The Lagrange Formulation of Mechanics and Hamilton Dynamics: Generalized co- ordinates and constraints, D’Alembert’s principle and Lagrange’s Equation, Hamilton’s principle , integrals of motion, non-conservative system and generalized potential, Lagrange’s multiplier method, the Hamiltonian of a dynamical system, canonical equations, canonical transformations, Poisson brackets, phase space and Liouville’s

Motion in Non-inertial Systems: Accelerated translational co-ordinate system, dynamics in rotating co-ordinate system, motion of a particle near the surface of the earth.

The Motion of Rigid Bodies: The Euler angles, rotational kinetic energy and angular momentum, the inertia tensor, Euler equations of motion, motion of a torque-free symmetrical top, stability of rotational motion.

Recommended Books:

1. T. L. Chow, “Classical Mechanics”, John Wiley, 1995.

2. T, Kibble and F. Berkshire, “Classical Mechanics”, World Scientific, 5^th ed.2004.