CLASSICAL MECHANICS AND MATHEMATICAL METHODS
FALL 2005 - COURSE OUTLINE FOR PHYG301

http://www.atsweb.neu.edu/physics/t.taylor/cmm.html

 Professor Tomasz Taylor

Office: 208 DANA E-mail: taylor@neu.edu Telephone: 617-373-2979

Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays from 2:00 to 3:00 PM

Textbooks:   1) H. Goldstein, C. Poole and J. Safko, "Classical Mechanics" (third edition, Addison Wesley), referred to below as "GPS"; 2) "Mathematics of Classical and Quantum Physics" by F.W. Byron and R.W. Fuller (Two volumes bound as one in a paperback edition, Dover Publications), referred to below as "BF". Other useful, but not required, textbooks include J. Matthews and R. Walker, "Mathematical Methods of Physics" (Addison Wesley), G. Arfken, "Mathematical Methods for Physicists" (Academic Press), "Classical Dynamics" by J.V. Jose and E.J. Saletan (Cambridge University Press) and “Mechanics” (third edition) by L.D. Landau and E.M. Lifshitz.

Topics to be covered (week by week):

Week 1:  Refresher on Real and Complex Numbers, Sequences and Series (lecture notes)
Week 2:  Theory of Analytic Functions (BF 6)
Week 3:  Calculus of Residues (BF 6)
Week 4:  Asymptotic Expansions (lecture notes)
Week 5:  Vector Spaces (BF 4)
Week 6:  Columbus Day on Monday, October 10 and
                First Midterm Exam on Wednesday, October 12
Week 7:  Vector Operators and Matrices (BF 3)
Week 8:  Lagrangian Formulation of Mechanics (GPS 1, GPS 2)
Week 9:  Topics in Lagrangian Mechanics (GPS 2, GPS 5.3,4)
Week 10: Linear Oscillations and Central Force Motion (GPS 6, GPS 3)
Week 11: Central Force Motion (GPS 3) continued and
               Second Midterm Exam on Wednesday, November 16
Week 12: Hamiltonian Formulation of Mechanics (GPS 8) and
                Thanksgiving Break begins on Wednesday, November 23  
Week 13: Canonical Transformations (GPS 9)
Week 14: Hamilton-Jacobi Theory and Review (GPS 10)

Grade:  First Midterm Exam (October 12) - 15 %, Second Midterm Exam  (November 16) - 20 %, Final Exam (December 12) – 35 %. The other 30% of the grade is determined from the average score on Monday quizzes which are based on one of the assigned homework problems. Homework problem assignments will be posted on the course website on Wednesdays and will be collected on Mondays of the following week at the beginning of the class, before the quiz at 4:35 PM. One lowest quiz score will be dropped, but there won't be quiz makeups for any reasons.