PHY 4222
Mechanics 2
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Prof: Yasumasa Takano / Fall 2020
Dec 12, 2021
While this course isn't as fundamental as mechanics 1 was, it was interesting. It's definitely a lot harder than mechanics 1 and the problems are much longer. Overall though it's doable if you just stay on top of the material.
You learn the second half of Classical Mechanics by John Taylor that was used in mechanics 1. That includes two-body central force problems (think the earth orbiting the sun), mechanics in non-inertial reference frames (centrifugal force and the Coriolis force), coupled oscillators, a brief look at chaotic systems, Hamiltonians, and collision theory. Of the stuff I've seen in other physics classes, it's only collision theory (which is also probably the most complicated part of the class), and Hamiltonians (in quantum you need to know what a Hamiltonian is and that's it). Overall I wouldn't say this class has a lot of material you'll see in other physics classes.
I wasn't much of a fan of professor Takano. There was a hurricane this semester and classes were canceled for the whole university... well except for us, we still had to take our exam that day. Someone actually went to the Dean about this but it was too late, we had already taken the exam. He also made the exams super difficult, the average on the final exam was 17/30 because no one in the class knew how to answer the 3rd question on the exam.
The homeworks are very long, so make sure to start early. They're also very tedious and it's very easy to get stuck somewhere. Luckily, a lot of solutions are on Slader so make sure to check there if you need help.
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