Mechanics and Special Relativity

Catalog description

(First in a three-part series: PHYSICS 61, PHYSICS 71, PHYSICS 81.) This course covers Einstein's special theory of relativity and Newtonian mechanics at a level appropriate for students with a strong high school mathematics and physics background, who are contemplating a major in Physics or Engineering Physics or are interested in a rigorous treatment of physics. Postulates of special relativity, simultaneity, time dilation, length contraction, the Lorentz transformation, the space-time invariant, causality, relativistic momentum and energy, and invariant mass. Central forces, friction, contact forces, linear restoring forces. Momentum, work, energy, collisions. Angular momentum, torque, center of mass, moment of inertia, precession. Conserved quantities. Uses the language of vectors and multivariable calculus.