PH5001: Classical Mechanics

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Course Information

L-T-P-C3-1-0-4
Prerequisites None
Approved in Senate Meeting Number08

Syllabus

Module 1: Preliminaries

Lecture hours: 12 · Tutorial hours: 3 · Lab hours: 0

Mechanics of a system of particles in vector form, Conservation of linear momentum, energy and angular momentum, Lagrangian formulation and the action principle: Configuration space, generalised coordinates, Constrained systems, motion in a central field, including Kepler problem, Rutherford scattering, Small oscillations, normal modes .

Module 2: Rigid body kinematics and dynamics

Lecture hours: 8 · Tutorial hours: 2 · Lab hours: 0

Kinematics, rotational kinetic energy, Moments of inertia, inertia tensor, Euler angles, angular momentum, Free rigid body motion .

Module 3: Hamiltonian formulation

Lecture hours: 9 · Tutorial hours: 3 · Lab hours: 0

Legendre transformation, Canonical momentum, Poisson brackets, Canonical transformations .

Module 4: Dynamical Systems

Lecture hours: 9 · Tutorial hours: 3 · Lab hours: 0

First order systems, Second order systems, Linear Stability analysis, Classification of Fixed points, Newtonian systems - Phase space reduction, Cyclic coordinates, Phase space description and evolution, Periodically driven systems .

Module 5: Relativistic mechanics

Lecture hours: 5 · Tutorial hours: 2 · Lab hours: 0

Space-time, 4-vectors, Lorentz transformation, Basic relativistic kinematics and dynamics .

Study Materials

Textbooks

  1. Classical Mechanics, H. Goldstein, Charles P Poole, John Safko, Pearson India Education Services Pvt Ltd, ISBN: 978-81-317-5891-5
  2. Introduction to Dynamics, Ian Percivel and Derek Richards, Cambridge University Press, ISBN: 9780521281492

References

  1. Classical Mechanics, N C Rana and P S Joag, Cambridge University Press, ISBN: 9780521281492
  2. Mechanics : Course of Theoretical Physics, Vol. 1, L. Landau and E. Lifshitz, Pergamon, 1974, ISBN: