PHY311 : Classical Mechanics

PHY 311 : Classical Mechanics

The course aims at a detailed survey of the basic formalism and applications of classical mechanics.
This website will have all the updates for this course.

This course will cover the following topics :

Basic ideas of Newtonian mechanics.
Contraints, generalised coordinates, Euler-Lagrange equations.
Integrals of motion, symmetries and conservation laws.
Hamiltonian formalism, Poisson brackets, symplectic formulation.
Canonical transformations and Hamilton-Jacobi theory.
Action-angle variables.
Small oscillations and normal modes.
Central force problem, classical scattering.
Introduction to Hamiltonian chaos.

Evaluation :
Quiz (About 3-4 quizzes): 40%
Midsem : 30%
Endsem : 30%

Suggested Books :

1. Clasical Mechanics
Herbert Goldstein (Narosa Publishing House).

2. Classical Mechanics : A course of lectures
A. K. Raychaudhuri (Oxford University Press, 2009)

Is classical mechanics still relevant ? Take a look at this video of how high jump
changed forever since the 1968 Olympics due to Fosbury Flop.

Problem Sheet 1
You can also try problems given in other classical mechanics text books.

Quiz-1 will be held on 7.9.2016 (Wednesday).
Everything taught about Lagrangian formalism will be covered in this quiz.

Quiz-1 question paper and Brief solutions.

Problem Sheet 2
This covers Hamiltonian dynamics and canonical transforms.

Mid-sem exam will be held on 19.9.2016 (Monday).
Mid-sem exam will cover D'Alembert's principle, Lagrangian formalism,
conservation theorems, Hamiltonian dynamics, canonical transforms and Poisson brackets.

Problem Sheet 3

Quiz 2 will be held on 20.10.2016 (Thursday).
It will cover central force motion and Rutherford scattering.

Midsem question paper and Brief solutions.

Quiz-2 question paper and Brief solutions.

Quiz 3 will be held on 12.11.2016 (Saturday) at 9:00 AM.
It will cover small oscillations and rotational dynamics in three dimensions.

Problem Sheet 4

A quick re-cap of some aspects of dynamics in rotating frames is available here.

Quiz 4 will be held on 17.11.2016 during the usual class hours.
This test will be on Hamilton-Jacobi theory.

NOTE: For the quiz component of overall evaluation, best 3 out of 4 tests will be considered.

Final exam will be held on 29.11.2016 during 10:00 am to 12:00 noon.
For this exam, everything except the first two chapters from Goldstein's book will be covered.

Quiz-3 question paper and Brief solutions.

Quiz-4 question paper and Brief solutions.

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