Physics 105 - Analytic Mechanics: Syllabus

Here is the Table of Contents from Hand-Finch (with the rough correspondence to specific sections of [Marion-Thornton] in parentheses):

1. LAGRANGIAN MECHANICS
(Ch.7.1-7.7 of [MT])

2. VARIATIONAL CALCULUS AND ITS APPLICATION TO MECHANICS
(Ch. 6 of [MT])

3. LINEAR OSCILLATORS
(Ch. 3 of [MT])

4. ONE-DIMENSIONAL SYSTEMS: CENTRAL FORCES AND THE KEPLER PROBLEM
Ch. 5 and 8 of [MT])

5. NOETHER'S THEOREM AND HAMILTONIAN MECHANICS
(Ch. 2.5 and 7.9 of [MT])

6. THEORETICAL MECHANICS: FROM CANONICAL TRANSFORMATIONS TO ACTION-ANGLE VARIABLES
(Ch. 7.10-7.13 of [MT])

7. ROTATING COORDINATE SYSTEMS
(Ch. 10 of [MT])

8. THE DYNAMICS OF RIGID BODIES
(Ch. 11 of [MT])

9. THE THEORY OF SMALL VIBRATIONS
(Ch. 12 of [MT])

10. APPROXIMATE SOLUTIONS TO NONANALYTIC PROBLEMS
(parts of Ch. 4 of [MT])

11. CHAOTIC DYNAMICS
(Ch. 4 of [MT])

12. SPECIAL RELATIVITY
(Ch. 14 of [MT])

This is pretty close to the layout of the course, with the following exceptions:
We will proceed at the (approximate) speed of one Section per week. The twelve main Sections listed above will be flanked by (1) a summary of some basic physics and math concepts (at the level of Ch. 1 and 2 of [MT]) before we proceed to Section 1 of [HF], and (2) special topics after we are done with the body of [HF].

horava@socrates.berkeley.edu