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PHY 321: Classical Mechanics 1, Michigan State University, Spring 2025

About the course

Getting Started
Teachers and Grading
Textbooks

Calendar & Lecture Materials

Course Calendar
Course Material and Links
Slides
Handwritten Notes

Weekly Course Materials

Week 1 - Overture: What is Classical Physics?
Week 1 - Notes: Introduction to Classical Mechanics
Week 2 - Computing as a tool for science
Week 2 - Notes: Mathematical Preliminaries
Week 3 - What is Mathematical Modeling?
Week 3 - Notes: Making Classical Models
Week 4 - Why does fluid drag complicate things?
Week 4 - Notes: Equations of Motion
Week 5 - Conservation Laws
Week 5 - Notes: Conservation of Energy
Week 6 - Stability and Equilibria
Week 6 - Notes: Stability and Energy
Week 6 - Notes: Linear and Angular Momentum
Week 7 - Nonlinear Dynamics
Week 7 - Notes: Critical Points; Phase Space; Trajectories
Week 8 - Oscillations
Week 8 - Notes: Oscillators and Modeling Oscillations
Week 9 - Driven Oscillators and Resonance
Week 9 - Notes: Driven Oscillations
Week 10 - Chaotic Dynamics
Week 10 - Activity: Modeling Chaotic Systems
Week 11 - Calculus of Variations
Week 11 - Notes: The Euler-Lagrange Equation
Week 12 - The Principle of Least Action
Week 12 - Notes: Introduction to Lagrangian Mechanics
Week 13 - Lagrangian Mechanics
Week 13 - Notes: Examples of Lagrangian Mechanics

Assignments

Homework 1 (Due 24 Jan)
Homework 2 (Due 31 Jan)
Homework 3 (Due 07 Feb)
Homework 4 (Due 17 Feb)
Midterm 1 (Due 28 Feb)
Homework 5 (Due 14 Mar)
Homework 6 (Due 21 Mar)
Homework 7 (Due 28 Mar)
Midterm 2 (Due 11 Apr)
Homework 8 (Due 18 Apr)

Resources

Course Commitments
i-Clicker Setup Instructions
Generative Artificial Intelligence
Submitting Assignments on Gradescope
Finding Research Opportunities
Numerical Integrators
Plotting Phase Diagrams
Modeling Chaotic Systems
Rubric for Computational Essay Final Project

Honors Projects

Chaos in the driven nonlinear pendulum
From Ordinary Differential equations to Neural Networks, solving mechanics problems in a new way
Building a model for the solar system using ordinary differential equations

Index

By Danny Caballero, Morten Hjorth-Jensen, Rachel Henderson

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