PHY 101: General Physics I (Mechanics)

Learning Outcomes

At the end of the course students should be able to:

1. identify and deduce the physical quantities and their units;
2. differentiate between vectors and scalars;
3. describe and evaluate motion of systems on the basis of the fundamental laws of mechanics;
4. apply Newton’s laws to describe and solve simple problems of motion;
5. evaluate work, energy, velocity, momentum, acceleration, and torque of moving or rotating objects;
6. explain and apply the principles of conservation of energy, linear and angular momentum;
7. describe the laws governing motion under gravity; and

• explain motion under gravity and quantitatively determine behaviour of objects moving under gravity.

Course Contents

Space and time; units and dimension, Vectors and Scalars, Differentiation of vectors: displacement, velocity and acceleration; kinematics; Newton laws of motion (Inertial frames, Impulse, force and action at a distance, momentum conservation); Relative motion; Application of Newtonian mechanics; Equations of motion; Conservation principles in physics, Conservative forces, conservation of linear momentum, Kinetic energy and work, Potential energy, System of particles, Centre of mass; Rotational motion; Torque, vector product, moment, rotation of coordinate axes and angular momentum. Polar coordinates; conservation of angular momentum; Circular motion; Moments of inertia, gyroscopes and precession; Gravitation: Newton’s Law of Gravitation, Kepler’s Laws of Planetary Motion, Gravitational Potential Energy, Escape velocity, Satellites motion and orbits.