Handout CM-17-00

General info
Instructor: Riccardo Capovilla
off. 50-A ext. 6182
capo@fis.cinvestav.mx
riccardo.capovilla@gmail.com

T.A.s
Pedro Raul Jimenez off. 40-B (rjimenez@fis.cinvestav.mx)
Jose de la Cruz off. 40-B (jdlcruz@fis.cinvestav.mx)
Hector Zapata off. 39-B (hizapata@fis.cinvestav.mx)

Class
Tue 13.00 14.30
Th 13.00 14.30

Problem session
Fri 15.00 17.00

Exams
19/9 First Midterm
7/11 Second Midterm
5/12 Final Exam

1
 Homework
weekly, Tuesday Tuesday
no late homework accepted (at end of class on due Tuesday)
total: 12 homeworks.

Important Note
Although you are allowed, and even encouraged to discuss homework with others, the work you
turn in should be your own, and should reflect your own understanding, and you should be prepared
to explain and defend it on your own.
Any outside help or source should be mentioned explicitly. Any incorrect behaviour goes against
the principle of fairness and will be treated according to the academic rulebook.
The availability of solution manuals on the internet makes it tempting to just copy and paste.
Unfortunately, this does not help understanding the subject matter. Homework helps to test how
much one has really understood of the theory presented in class or read in a book.

Grade
100 = 35 (homework) + 15 (first midterm) + 15 (second midterm) + 30 (final) + 5 (extra)
(extra) := at my discretion, depending on your participation in the class, special cases, etc.

2
Course outline (broad & indicative)
1. Review of Newtonian mechanics and elements of relativistic mechanics
2. Lagrangian mechanics
3. Relativistic mechanics
4. Hamiltonian mechanics
5. Continuum mechanics
6. Non-linear dynamics

Course program
As available on the webpage of the Department.

Course textbooks
A.L. Fetter and J.D. Walecka , Theoretical mechanics of particles and continua, McGraw-Hill
(1980)
L.D. Landau and E.M. Lifshitz, Mechanics (2nd ed.), Pergamon Press (1960)

Recommended texts
J.V. Jose and E.J. Saletan, Classical dynamics: a contemporary approach, Cambridge U. Press
(1998)
H. Goldstein, C. Poole, J. Safko, Classical Mechanics (3rd ed.), Addison Wesley (2000)
W. Greiner, Classical mechanics: systems of particles and Hamiltonian dynamics, Springer-Verlag
New York (2003)
V.I. Arnold, Mathematical methods of classical mechanics (2nd ed.), Springer-Verlag New York
(1989)

Journals
American Journal of Physics
Physics Today