Learning Outcomes
On completion, the students should be able to:
1. explain particle motion in one, two, and three dimensions;
2. describe the two body problem and many body systems;
3. define and solve problems of conservative forces;
4. explain Newton theory of gravitation;
5. describe the nature of generalised motion;
6. explain the theory of relativity;
7. identify an appropriate set of generalised coordinates to describe a dynamical system and
obtain its Lagrangian in terms of those coordinates and the associated ‘velocities’; and
8. derive and solve the corresponding equations of motion. Treat small oscillations as an
eigenvalue problem.
Course Contents
Review of Newtonian Mechanics. Motion of a particle in one, two and three dimensions. Internal
forces. External forces. Forces of constraint. Systems of particles and collision theory. Newtonian
gravitation; conservative forces and potentials, oscillations, central force problems; accelerated
frames of reference. Rigid body dynamics. Rotational problems and space coordinates. Mechanics
of continuous media. Galilean relativity. Relativistic kinematics and dynamics. Applications of
relativistic kinematics.
