State diagrams and the nature of physical laws

Classical Mechanics (Fall, 2007)

Lecture Playlist

  1. State diagrams and the nature of physical laws

  2. Newton's laws, principle of least action

  3. Euler-Lagrange equations, symmetry and conservation laws

  4. Symmetry and conservation Laws

  5. Lagrangians and Hamiltonians

  6. Hamilton's equations

  7. Liouville’s theorem

  8. Motion in an electromagnetic field

  9. Poisson brackets formulation

October 15, 2007

This first lecture is a general discussion of the nature of the laws of physics and in particular classical mechanics. The notions of configuration, reversibility, determinism, and conservation law are introduced for simple systems with a finite number of states.  For example, a conservation law appears as a set of states isolated and cycling among themselves.

Topics: 
  • State transitions of a classical system
  • Conservation laws
  • Allowable laws of classical physics
  • Deterministic state transition
  • Conservation of information
  • Equations of motion
References