http://gallatin.physics.lsa.umich.edu/~keithr/p401/

Course Bulletin Board Page:

http://gallatin.physics.lsa.umich.edu/~keithr/p401/bulletinboard.html

Prof. Keith Riles
372 West Hall
(734) 764-4652
kriles@umich.edu

Monday 10:30-11:30
Tuesday 10:00-11:00; 2:30-3:30

Peer leader: Will Turner
rwturner@umich.edu
Sunday 7:00-9:00 p.m. in 335 West Hall

Ramon Armen
Office hour: Friday 11:30-12:30 in 3239 Randall (grading questions/concerns)
rarmen@umich.edu

Lecture Times & Location:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday 9:00-10:00 in 335 West Hall

Required Text:

Classical Dynamics of Particles and Systems, Stephen Thornton and Jerry Marion, 5th edition (2004)

• Mechanics,  Symon, third edition (1971)


This older, alternative textbook is roughly at the level of Thornton & Marion, but with a more complete treatment of some specialized subjects. Its ordering of topics is not as modern as that of Thornton & Marion, and I find it less crisply written, but there is some very good material here to explore.
 

• Theoretical Mechanics of Particles and Continua, Fetter & Walecka (1980)

Classical Mechanics, Goldstein, second edition (1980)

These graduate-level textbooks have more depth and mathematical sophistication than Thornton & Marion. The Fetter & Walecka text is notable for its thorough treatment of continuum mechanics, while the Goldstein text is notable for its thorough treatment of Hamiltonian mechanics.

There will be 14 homework assignments, due at the start of each Wednesday lecture, beginning September 12. The final assignment will be due Monday December 10.

Assigned homework problems will be posted on the course web site at least one week before their due date. Solutions will be posted on the web site after each Wednesday lecture. Both problem assignments and solutions will be posted as pdf (portable document format) files. These files can be read with the Adobe Acrobat Reader software, which is installed already on most U-M computers and can be downloaded for free from Adobe . The program can be run automatically (separately or as an integrated "plug-in") from your Web browser, allowing you to quickly examine and print out documents.

Problems and solutions will be posted on the course bulletin board page:

http://gallatin.physics.lsa.umich.edu/~keithr/p401/bulletinboard.html

Because solutions will be posted immediately, late homework will not be accepted .

There will be two in-class, 50-minute exams and a 2-hour final exam. Exam 1 will be held Friday October 19 and will cover chapters 1-3 and 5-6. Exam 2 will be held Friday November 16 and will cover chapters 1-3 and 5-9, focussing on material after the first exam. The final exam will be held Tuesday December 18 10:30 a.m - 12:30 p.m. and will cover chapters 1-3 and 5-12.

Course grades will be based on homework (30%), the two in-class exams (20% each) and the final exam (30%).