PHY205: Classical Mechanics B Fall 2017

PHY205: Course Information

Schedule is subject to change - this is current as of September 13, 2017.
Instructional Staff
Name Office Hours Email
Simone Giombi Jadwin 328 Friday 11am-12pm sgiombi@princeton.edu
(or by appointment)
Shai Chester Jadwin 422 Tuesday 9:30am-11:30am schester@princeton.edu
(or by appointment)
Luca Iliesiu Jadwin 423 Monday 8pm-10pm liliesiu@princeton.edu
(or by appointment)

Welcome to Phy205. Lectures will be held on Monday and Wednesday, 11:00-12:20

in Jadwin A10. Problem sets will be posted each Tuesday after 1:30pm and will
be due Tuesday of the following week by 1:30pm in the box by the mailboxes in the
main entrance to Jadwin. There will be a problem session held in Jadwin A09 by
the TAs each Monday afternoon 5-7PM.

Fall 2016 Schedule

Week Date Topic Reading
0 9/13 Introduction and Newtonian Mechanics Review T&M 1,2
1 9/18 Lagrangians, Calculus of Variations T&M 6-6.5; 7-7.4, L&L I
2 9/25 More on Lagrangians, Constraints, Lagrange multipliers T&M 7.5-7.8, T&M 6.6, L&L III 11
3 10/2 Symmetries and Noethers theorem, Hamiltonian Dynamics L&L II, T&M 7.9-7.10, L&L VII 40, Noether Notes
4 10/9 More on Hamiltonians, Canonical transformations. Hamilt. Notes, L&L VII 42, 45.
5 10/16 More on symmetries and Hamiltonians. Central Forces. Hamilt. Notes T&M 8, L&L III
6 10/23 Central Forces, Celestial Mechanics T&M 8, L&L III
6 10/25 Midterm I
10/30 Fall Break
7 11/6 Driven/Damped/Forced Oscillations, Fourier, and Greens functions Notes, T&M 3, L&L V,
8 11/13 Coupled oscillations, Normal modes T&M 12, Notes
9 11/20 More on coupled oscillations, Restricted 3-body motion T&M 12, Notes
9 11/22 No Class - Thanksgiving break
10 11/27 Continuous Systems, Lagrangian densities T&M 13
11 12/4 Non-inertial frames, Rigid bodies T&M 10, T&M 11, L&L VI
12 12/11 More on rigid bodies, Relativity (mostly special) T&M 11, T&M 14, Notes
12 12/13 Midterm II
12/15 Winter Break Begins
1/8 Reading Period Begins
1/171/27 ?? Final Exam

Textbooks:
Landau & Lifshitz, Mechanics.
Marion & Thornton, Classical Dynamics.

Additional useful references:

Fetter & Walecka, Theoretical Mechanics of Particles and Continua.
Goldstein, Classical Mechanics.

1 Princeton University
PHY205: Classical Mechanics B Fall 2017

Policies
The first midterm is tentatively scheduled for October 25, in-class. The second
midterm will be held just before winter break, tentatively on December 13, in-class.
Both the midterms are closed book/closed notes and will last 80 minutes. A three
hour final exam will be scheduled during the regular exam period in January.
Grades will be based on the homework and exams as follows: Home-
work 20% , Midterm I/II each 25% and the Final 30%.

Constructive collaboration on your homework is encouraged. However, you

should not by any means allow yourself to rely on your colleagues to
grasp the material on the problem sets. Collaboration is a means to effective
learning, and not a means to a completed problem set.
The importance of the problem sets cannot be overstated. Spending a consider-
able amount of time working on the assignment is absolutely key to succeed in this
class. You will fail the exams if you do not fully grasp the material presented in the
problem sets.
Late homeworks: You will be permitted to hand homeworks in after the nom-
inal deadline (Tuesday 1:30pm), but your score will be reduced by an exponential
with a three-day half life.1

Collaboration on any aspect of the exams is strictly forbidden. Distribution of

the solutions for the problem sets or exams beyond the current enrollment of Phy205
is likewise forbidden. The Honor Code applies to all the material in the course we
are all bound by it.

1
To be clear, the daily clock starts at 1:30pm on Tuesday, d0 , with 1:30 on Wednesday marking
the end of the first decay-day, d. It is left as an excercise for the student to show that your grade
= (what it would have been) e(dd0 )/ , where = 3/ log(2).

2 Princeton University