Welcome to Analytical Mechanics, Spring 2003!

Date: 13 Jan 2003
Time: MWF 8-9:15 Armerding 20
Instructor: Rob Sheldon
Office Hours: TBA, Armerding 14
Phone: 630/752-7116
email: Robert*.B.Sheldon@wheaton.edu (delete *)
Text:
J.Marion and S.Thornton,
Classical Dynamics,
of particles and systems
4th edition
Saunders College Publ.
Harcourt Brace &Co.
1995. 		Amazon.com price $110
paperback seen for $35

Course Description: This course repeats the freshman year introductory course, but with greater mathematical rigor and more realistic description. Here we begin to develop the skills needed to solve "real-life" problems that we don't already have the answer for. The course material, as described in the college catalog, lists only 19th century topics. We will try to bring in 20th developments that came with the computer age: dynamics, chaos, tensors. There is far more material in the text than can be covered in a one-semester course, so the emphasis will be not on content solely, but on mastery. My own experience with this course (which hasn't changed much in the 25 intervening years) suggests that weekly homework assignments are needed to prevent the material from becoming overwhelming. That translates to 1-hour to read the book and 5-hour problem sets. Make sure your schedule has that time set aside, you will need every minute of it, some weeks more and some less. Despite all the pedagogy in your schooling that emphasized concepts, this material requires mastery, and that takes repitition and time. Don't scrimp on time, just budget it wisely.

Homework Sets/ Quizzes: Homework will be due each Friday. The assignments will be put on the web as the material is covered in class. Since this is my first time teaching from this book, I have not yet finalized all the homework assignments, so keep up to date by checking the web site. Some of the problems will require simple computer programs. Matlab is available in Armerding 12, or you can use your favorite language. (Basic, C, Fortran, Modula-3, Mathematica etc.)
In addition, I will be trying out a new tool that tries to use the WWW as a fast-response feedback loop. Before Wednesday's class, a Quiz will be posted on the WWW (it shows up as a red, underlined Quiz 0 in the syllabus below), which must be completed before class.

Grading: The course grade will be based on Homework & Quizzes counting 40%, and 4 Tests worth 60%. Note how much emphasis is on the outside class work, which is crucial for passing this course.

TOOLS:
Contributed Programs
MatLab 12.1 for Windows @ Wheaton.edu
Installation instructions
Explanation of tides

Tentative Schedule:
WK DATE Ch/LECTURE Hmwk/Quiz SOLUTIONS
1 M Jan 13 1: Introduction M&T Chap1
1 W Jan 15 1: Vectors and Operators Quiz 01
1 F Jan 17 1: More Math 1:7,11,14,22,26,29,37
2 M Jan 20 **Holiday** M&T Chap2
2 W Jan 22 2: Intro to F=MA No Quiz 02
2 F Jan 24 2: Conservation Laws 2: 6,7,10,28,33,42,58 Some Solutions
3 M Jan 27 2: Rockets M&T Chap3
3 W Jan 29 3: Oscillations I Quiz 03
3 F Jan 31 3: Oscillations II
4 M Feb 3 **Test 1**
4 W Feb 5 Test Review 3:4, 12, 18, 21, 30, 34, 43 (note!)
4 F Feb 6 Some Computing
5 M Feb 10 4: Chaos I
5 W Feb 12 4: Chaos II No Quiz 05
5 F Feb 14 4: Chaos III 4: 8, 10, 14, 17, 18, 19, (bonus) 22 Solutions
6 M Feb 17 **Holiday**
6 W Feb 19 5: Gravity I No Quiz 06
6 F Feb 21 5: Gravity II 5: 3, 5, 7, 15, 16, 19 Solutions
7 M Feb 24 6: Euler I
7 W Feb 26 6: Euler II No Quiz 07
7 F Feb 28 7: Lagrange I 6:2,4,6,7,10 Solutions
8 M Mar 3 **Test 2 **
8 W Mar 5 7: Lagrange II No Quiz 08
8 F Mar 7 7: Lagrange III
9 M Mar 10 ***Spring Break***
9 W Mar 12 ***Spring Break***
9 F Mar 14 ***Spring Break***
10 M Mar 17 7: Lagrange IV
10 W Mar 19 7: Lagrange V No Quiz 09
10 F Mar 21 8: Orbits I 7: 6, 7, 18, 22, 28, 31, (34) (New!) Solutions
11 M Mar 24 8: Orbits II
11 W Mar 26 8:Orbits III No Quiz 10
11 F Mar 28 10: Non-Inertial I 8: 4, 12, 18, 25, 29, 38 (40) Solutions
12 M Mar 31 11: Rotation I
12 W Apr 2 11: Rotation II No Quiz 11
12 F Apr 4 11: Rotation III
13 M Apr 7 11: Rotation IV 10: 1, 3, 6, 8, 9, 12, (15) Solutions
13 W Apr 9 **Test 3 **
13 F Apr 11 12: Coupled Osc I
14 M Apr 14 12: Coupled Osc II
14 W Apr 16 12: Coupled Osc III Quiz 12
14 F Apr 18 **Holiday**
15 M Apr 21 13: Strings I
15 W Apr 23 13: Strings II Quiz 13
15 F Apr 25 14: Waves I
16 M Apr 28 14: Waves II
16 W Apr 30 14: Waves III Quiz 14
16 F May 2 15: Relativity
17 W May 7 **Final Exam @ 8:00**

Resources:
Powers of 10
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