Course overview
This course will give students a working knowledge of analytical mechanics and relativity to the standard required for further study in physics. Content will include: Mechanics: Lagrangian mechanics, variational techniques, conservation laws, Noether's theorem, small oscillations, Hamiltonian mechanics, Poisson brackets. Relativity: space-time vectors and tensors, relativistic mechanics, electrodynamics; field-strength tensor, Lienard-Wiechert potentials.
Course learning outcomes
- explain Lagrangian methods for problem solving, including small oscillations
- explain the relation between symmetry and conservation
- discuss the Hamiltonian formulation and its connection with quantum mechanics
- discuss the space-time approach to relativity and four-vectors
- explain relativistic kinematics and optics
- discuss relativistic analytic mechanics for a particle coupled to a field
- discuss covariant form of Maxwell's electromagnetic equations
- recognise appropriate techniques for solving a range of problems
- apply appropriate techniques to develop a solution
- andassess the validity of any assumptions that were made, and the correctness of the solution.