Advanced Mechanics, Winter 2022-23

Course Information

Dr. Andrew Frey
2L26
a dot frey at uwinnipeg dot ca
204-786-9215

Lectures at MWF 10:30-11:20, room 2L14
Office Hours by appointment on zoom
Zoom coordinates for office hours or if you must attend class remotely

Course Outline

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).

COVID-19 Info

An individual in this class has a medical accommodation requiring that everybody in the class be masked. If you are not prepared to wear a mask in class you should withdraw from this course and select a different course.

If you feel ill or have new or worsening symptoms of COVID-19, please do not come to class (or the university at all)! If you let me know about an absence in advance, I will attempt to set up zoom in the class room for you to attend remotely. Additionally, if I need to stay home due to illness but am well enough to teach, I will teach remotely via zoom and let you know in advance via UWinnipeg email.

Texts

Required: Lectures on Classical Dynamics by David Tong, Jan 2015
Required: Lectures on Dynamics and Relativity by David Tong, March 2013
Supplemental: Mechanics and Relativity by Idema, Sept 2019 ed
Supplemental: Variational Principles in Classical Mechanics by Cline, 2nd ed

These four texts are all available freely as linked here. The texts by Tong are under copyright, so you may not distribute or print them. The texts by Idema and Cline 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, I may assign some extra reading (from other texts, journal articles, etc). There are other texts available through the library reserves system (including electronically), which you may find helpful.

Important Dates

First Lecture: 4 Jan 2023
Midterm Test: 8 Feb 2023 in class
Winter Reading Week: 19-25 Feb 2023 (no class)
Voluntary Withdrawal Date: 14 Mar 2023
Course Project Due: 22 Mar 2023
Last Lecture: 3 Apr 2023
Review Session: 2:30PM 13 April 2023 2L14 or zoom
Final Exam: 9AM-noon Sat 15 April 2023, room 3M64

Syllabus

Reading assignments are in this section. 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. T1 stands for Tong's Dynamics and Relativity notes, and T2 stands for his Classical Dynamics notes. Italicized reading is optional.

*Dates*	*Topic*	*Reading*
4-16 Jan	Lagrangian & Hamiltonian Mechanics: Calculus of Variations	C§5.1-5,9 C§5.6,7; T2§1 (as review)
16-25 Jan	Lagrangian & Hamiltonian Mechanics: Lagrangian Formalism	T2§2.1-3; C§6.1-6,10; see also T2§2.5; C§6.7-9 for examples
25 Jan - 6 Feb	Lagrangian & Hamiltonian Mechanics: Hamiltonian Formalism	T2§4.1,4.2.1-2,4.3(intro),4.4.2; C§2.11; C§7.2-5,7,11-13;8.1-5;15.2
8 Feb	Midterm Test
10 Feb - 1 Mar	Systems of Particles	T1§5.1-3; C§2.12.6,11.2,3,11,13; I§4.4-8
3-10 Mar	Special Relativity: Lorentz Transformations	T1§intro to 7.1,7.1.1,7.3,7.4.7; I§11.1-4; C§17.5.1-3,17.2-3
13-27 Mar	Special Relativity: Momentum & Applications	T1§7.4,5; C§17.5.4; I chapters 13,14
22 Mar	Project Presentations
29 Mar - 3 Apr	Coupled Harmonic Oscillators: General Problem	T2§2.5.2,2.6; C§14.2,3,5-8; I§8.4
13 April	Review Session
15 April	Final Exam

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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.
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 11 Jan
Assignment 2 due 18 Jan
Assignment 3 due 25 Jan
Assignment 4 due 1 Feb
Assignment 5 due 15 Feb
Assignment 6 due 1 Mar
Assignment 7 due 8 Mar
Assignment 8 due 15 Mar
Assignment 9 due 29 Mar
Assignment 10 due 3 Apr
Assignment 11 NOT HANDED IN

Course Project

Instructions, including the detailed marking scheme and all deadlines are given here: Project Instructions.

You must choose a project topic by 15 March.
Project presentations will be in class 22 March.
Project papers are due to the homework upload folder by 10:59PM on 22 March.
Papers must be PDF files prepared using LaTeX or MS Word (or similar word processor) with an equation editor.

Last updated: 21:33 on 31 Aug 2023