Department of Physics

PHY 520: Classical Dynamics

Course Information

Please note that exact details of the course can vary

Professor: Dr. Gerhard Muller

Semester: Fall in alternate years
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: PHY510 (readily waived by permission numbers).

Catalog Description: Newton’s laws. Conservation theorems and symmetry properties. Lagrangian mechanics. Central force motion. Dynamics of rigid bodies. Hamiltonian mechanics. Canonical transformations. Action-angle coordinates. Hamilton-Jacobi theory. Deterministic chaos. Relativistic mechanics.

Course Goals & Outcomes

Upon completion, successful students will be able to:

• Understand important topics of classical dynamics including relativity
• Further develop critical thinking and problem solving skills
• Conduct physics research on a better foundation

Course Description

This course meets 2 times per week for lecture.

Topics covered in this course include:

• Newtonian mechanics and Newtonian gravitation
• Simple dynamical systems, fixed points, and limit cycles
• Lagrangian mechanics including extremum problems
• Central force motion including central-force scattering and celestial mechanics
• Rotating frames of reference
• Rigid body dynamics
• Oscillations
• Hamiltonian mechanics, canonical coordinates, and canonical transformations
• Hamilton-Jacobi theory
• Deterministic chaos
• Relativistic mechanics

Detailed topic outline:  Please visit here

Contact Information:  Dr. Gerhard Muller , Email: gmuller@uri.edu

LEC: (3 crs.) Newton’s laws. Conservation theorems and symmetry properties. Lagrangian mechanics. Central force motion. Dynamics of rigid bodies. Hamiltonian mechanics. Canonical transformations. Action-angle coordinates. Hamilton-Jacobi theory. Deterministic chaos. Relativistic mechanics. (Lec. 3) Pre: credit or concurrent enrollment in PHY 510.