Course Information
Dr. Andrew Freya dot frey at uwinnipeg dot ca
Lectures at MWF 10:30-11:20 on
zoom
Office Hours by appointment
This is the course homepage for PHYS-3203, Advanced Mechanics.
I welcome feedback and comments on the course. If you're more comfortable commenting anonymously, please feel free to upload a plain text file to the homework upload link (PDF and word documents are ok but may contain information that identifies you).
Texts
- Required: Mechanics and Relativity by Idema, Sept 2019 ed
- Required: Variational Principles in Classical Mechanics by Cline, 2nd ed
- These texts are both available through the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license. You may print them if you wish; see here for a permission form to take to university printing services.
In addition, some extra reading (from other texts, journal articles, etc) may be assigned. There are other texts available through the library reserves system (including electronically), which you may find helpful.
Important Dates
- First Lecture: 10 Jan 2022 (7 Jan lecture cancelled by University)
- Midterm Test 1: due 4 Feb 2022
- Winter Reading Week: 20-26 Feb 2022 (no class)
- Midterm Test 2: 9-11 March 2022
- Voluntary Withdrawal Date: 16 Mar 2022
- Last Lecture: 8 Apr 2022
- Review Session: 2PM 18 April 2022
- Final Exam: 6PM 19 April 2022 to 6PM 21 April 2022
Reading Schedule
Reading assignments will be posted on the course web page. You are responsible for keeping up with the reading; material covered in the reading will not necessarily be discussed in the class lectures but may be relevant to assignments. If you click the topic title, you'll get a scanned copy of my lecture notes.
Books are identified by the authors' initials. Italicized reading is optional.
| Dates | Topic | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| 10-21 Jan | Lagrangian & Hamiltonian Mechanics: Calculus of Variations | C§5.1-5,9 C§5.6,7 |
| 21-31 Jan | Lagrangian & Hamiltonian Mechanics: Lagrangian Formalism | C§6.1-6,10; C§6.7-9 for examples |
| 4 Feb | Midterm Test Due | Test Solutions |
| 7-16 Feb | Lagrangian & Hamiltonian Mechanics: Hamiltonian Formalism | C§7.2-5,7,11-13;8.1-3;15.2; C§2.11;8.4-5 |
| 18 Feb - 7 Mar | Systems of Particles | C§11.2,3,11; I§4.8; C§11.13 |
| 9-11 March | Review & Midterm Test | Test Solutions |
| 9-21 Mar | Special Relativity: Lorentz Transformations | I§11.1-4; C§17.5.1-3; C§17.2-3 |
| 23 Mar - 1 Apr | Special Relativity: Momentum & Applications | C§17.5.4; I chapters 13,14 |
| 1-8 Apr | Coupled Harmonic Oscillators: General Problem | C§14.2,3,5,6; C§14.7,8; I§8.4 |
| 19-21 Apr | Take-home Final Exam | Exam Solutions |
Any copy of copyrighted material on this web site is made solely for the use by a student, staff member, faculty member or library patron for research, private study, review, criticism, news reporting, education, satire, or parody. Any other use may be an infringement of copyright if done without securing the permission of the copyright owner.
Assignments
Policies
Please see the course outline for the official statement of homework policies. The following are guidelines:
- Assignments will only be posted on this web page; you must let me know if you need alternate delivery.
- Assignments will be posted Wednesday and are typically due the next Wednesday. Assignments are due by 10:59PM on the listed due date. Make sure to label your assignment with your name.
- Upload homeworks to this link. Because the course is starting and may remain online, assignment submission will be online the entire semester.
- Assignments may be scans to PDF, PDF prepared by LaTeX, or PDF prepared with a word processor using an equation editor. Photos are acceptable but must be converted to PDF. Only PDF files will be accepted for all assignments.
- Include your name on your assignment. Name your files with first initial, last name, and assignment number. If you need multiple files, label them in order with lower case letters. Example: AFrey_hw1.pdf or AFrey_hw1a.pdf, AFrey_hw1b.pdf, etc.
- Collaboration is allowed, but you must write up your own solutions independently (in your own words).
- Late assignments will only be accepted with prior permission from the instructor.
- Assignments that are not neatly organized and written will receive zero credit (one warning allowed). Please see the course outline.
- If you find a mistake in grading, please talk to Dr Frey.
Homework Sets
Solutions removed for security reasons.
- Assignment 1 due 19 Jan
- Assignment 2 due 26 Jan
- Assignment 3 due 2 Feb
- Assignment 4 due 16 Feb
- Assignment 5 due 2 Mar
- Assignment 6 due 9 Mar
- Assignment 7 due 23 Mar
- Assignment 8 due 30 Mar
- Assignment 9 due 6 Apr
- Assignment 10 NOT TO BE TURNED IN
Last updated: 13:25 on 9 Aug 2022