Course Description: This is one of the required courses for the M. S. degree in Physics. The objectives of the course is to establish a comprehensive foundation in classical mechanics and to develop necessary mathematical and computational skills that should serve a solid background for other fields of Physics, in particular Quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics. The students are assumed to know intermediate level classical mechanics and have working knowledge in calculus, vector calculus, linear algebra and differential equations.

Instructor: Özgür E. Müstecaplıoğlu
Office: SCI-155
Phone: (212) 338 1424
E-Mail: omustecap@ku.edu.tr

Lectures: Monday, Tuesday, 14:00-15:15 SCI B37

Office Hours: Tuesday, 15:30-16:45

Textbook: H. Goldstein, C. Poole, J. Safko, “Classical Mechanics”, Third Edition, (Addison Wesley, 2002).

Course Grade:

• 30% – Homework
• 20% – Midterm Exam-I
• 20% – Midterm Exam-II
• 30% – Final Exam

CourseContent:

• Ch. 1 Survey of the Elementary Principles
• Ch. 2 Variational Principles and Lagrange’s Equations
• Ch. 3 The Central Force Problem
• Ch. 4 The Kinematics of Rigid Body Motion
• Ch. 5 The Rigid Body Equations of Motion
• Ch. 6 Oscillations
• Ch. 8 The Hamilton Equations of Motion
• Ch.9 Canonical Transformations

Week		Subject (Sections in the Textbook)	HW
1	Sep. 18	1.1, 1.2
		1.3, 1.4
2	Sep. 25	1.5, 1.6	HW I
		2.1, 2.2
3	Oct. 2	2.3, 2.4, 2.5
		2.6, 2.7	HW II
4	Oct. 9	3.1, 3.2, 3.3
		3.4, 3.5, 3.6
5	Oct. 16	3.7, 3.8, 3.9
		3.10	HW III
6	Oct. 23	3.11, 3.12
		Midterm I
7	Oct. 30	4.1, 4.2
		4.3, 4.4, 4.5
8	Nov. 6	4.6, 4.7
		4.8, 4.9, 4.10	HW IV
9	Nov. 13	5.1, 5.2, 5.3
		5.4, 5.5, 5.6
10	Nov. 20	5.7
		5.8, 5.9	HW V
11	Nov. 27	6.1, 6.2
		6.3, 6.4	HW VI
12	Dec. 4	6.5, 6.6
		Midterm II
13	Dec. 11	8.1, 8.2
		8.3, 8.5, 8.6	HW VII
14	Dec. 18	9.1, 9.2
		9.3, 9.4
15	Dec. 25	9.5, 9.6
		9.7, 9.8, 9.9	HW VIII