Department of Physics

10ΥΚΟ31 Mechanics

Course webpage: https://eclass.uoa.gr/courses/PHYS340

Course outline

Course content

• Kinematics of a point object. Inertial systems. Newton’s laws.
• Conservation laws. Conservative forces. Integrals of motion.
• Systems with one degree of freedom: Motion boundaries, study of equilibrium points with perturbation methods and phase diagrams, harmonic oscillator.
• Impulsive forces. Collisions. Moving coordinate systems: Motion in a non-inertial system and applications.
• Central forces: Limits, integrals of motion, circular orbits and their stability, inverse square law forces, Kepler’s laws.
• Two-body problem. The gravitational field. Gravitation from extended bodies. Tidal forces.
• Lagrangian and hamiltonian formalism. Dynamics of the rigid body.