Courses Catalogue

Syllabus of the course: Classical Mechanics


In this web page we provide the syllabus of the course Classical Mechanics, offered by the Department of Physics.
The list of the courses offered during the current accademic year is available here.
The list of all courses offered by the Department of Physics is available here.

CodeΦ-204
TypeA
ECTS7
Hours6
SemesterSpring
InstructorK. Tassis
ProgramWednesday 11:00-13:00, Room 3 (Exercises)
Thursday 13:00-15:00, Room 3
Friday 9:00-11:00, Room 3
Web pagehttps://eclass.physics.uoc.gr/courses/PH204
Goal of the courseThe course is intended for second year students who have already studied mechanics as part of an introductory physics course and have acquaintance with differential and integral calculus, as well as differential equations. The course topics include the study of motion of a single particle, systems of particles, rigid bodies as well as the Lagrangian formulation of classical mechanics.
Syllabus1. Newton's laws of motion; inertial frames of reference; relativity principle; 1D kinematics; work, potential energy, conservative forces (1 week).
2. Oscillations: simple harmonic motion, damped oscillations, resonance, driven damped oscillations (1 week).
3. 3D kinematics. Torque, angular momentum, central forces, conservation of angular momentum, orbits (2 weeks)
4. The two-body problem. Center of mass, relative co-ordinates, the centre-of-mass frame, elastic collisions, many-body systems (2 weeks)
5. Rotating frames of reference. Non-inertial frames, acceleration, apparent gravity, Coriolis force, Foucault pendulum. (2 weeks)
6. Rigid bodies. Rotation about an axis, principles axes of inertia, calculation of moments of inertia, Euler angles, Euler equations (2 week).
7. Lagrangian mechanics. Calculus of variations, Lagrange equations, applications(2 weeks).
8. Hamiltonian mechanics. Hamilton's equations, Hamilton principle (1 week)
Bibliography1. "Classical Mechanics", T. W. B. Kibble, and F. H. Berkshire, 2004, Imperial College Press.
2. "Classical mechanics", J. R. Taylor, 2005, University Science Books.
3. "Analytical Mechanics", G. R. Fowles and G. L. Cassiday, 2004, Brooks Cole; International edition

University of Crete - Department of Physics  - Voutes University Campus - GR-70013 Heraklion, Greece
phone: +30 2810 394300 - email: chair@physics.uoc.gr