StudyPath

PHY 406 Classical Mechanics

400 levelSciences10 topics

PHY 406 covers 10 topics. StudyPath paces them into daily study sessions that finish before your exam date, with practice questions and worked answers for each one.

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Course outline

The topics this course covers, in teaching order.

  1. Review of Newtonian mechanics
  2. Generalised coordinates and constraints
  3. D'Alembert's principle
  4. Lagrangian formulation of mechanics
  5. Hamilton's variational principle
  6. Hamiltonian mechanics and phase space
  7. Central force motion and planetary orbits
  8. Rigid body dynamics
  9. Small oscillations and normal modes
  10. Canonical transformations

A sample from this course

One topic, as StudyPath teaches it.

Review of Newtonian mechanics

Newtonian mechanics is built on a few foundational ideas: motion is described using displacement, velocity and acceleration, while the causes of motion are analysed with force, mass, momentum and energy. For exams, you must be able to connect Newton’s laws to real motions, draw correct force diagrams, and choose the right conservation principle or equation of motion for a given problem.

What you get for PHY 406