Syllabus

Download a course syllabus here.

Course Description

This is amongst the most important classes you will take in your undergraduate career. The material covered in this course makes up the majority of the foundation on which the rest of physics is constructed. You will also pick up invaluable skills for calculation in all areas of physics. The material has numerous interesting applications: particle physics and field theory; chaos and nonlinear mechanics; quantum mechanics and its myriad applications; and the theory of fluids and turbulence. The formulation of mechanics in terms of Lagrange’s or Hamilton’s equations brings a plethora of systems that were previously extremely difficult or completely intractable in to the reach of the interested and curious physicist. These formulations provide the most succinct and direct formulations of mechanics ever discovered. Welcome to a new world!