State diagrams and the nature of physical laws

Classical Mechanics (Fall, 2011)

Lecture Playlist

  1. State diagrams and the nature of physical laws

  2. Newton's law, phase space, momentum and energy

  3. Lagrangian, least action, Euler-Lagrange equations

  4. Symmetry and conservation laws

  5. The Hamiltonian

  6. Hamilton's equations

  7. Liouville s theorem

  8. Poisson brackets

  9. Electric and magnetic fields 1

  10. Electric and magnetic fields 2

September 26, 2011

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.

Topics: 
  • Allowable laws of physics
  • Configurations of a coin
  • Equations of motion of a coin and a die
  • The concept of conserved quantities and conservation laws
  • Systems with infinite number of configurations
  • Laws of physics that are not allowable
  • Non reversibility
  • Predictability in the real world
  • Determinism in the past and future
  • System of point particles in space
  • Mathematics: coordinate systems, vector algebra, vector dot product, triangle law of cosines
  • Motion of a particle: position, velocity and acceleration
  • Circular motion and centripetal acceleration
References