Announcements for Physics 601 (Prof. Agashe) Ð Fall 2018

 

(1). Final letter grades are posted on ELMS and UMEG.

 

(2). Final exam solutions are posted here: average score was 94.5 (out of maximum possible of 100), with standard deviation of 5.4.

(3). Take-home final exam is assigned here, due strictly by noon on December 17 (Monday) in folder outside Rm. 3118 of PSC.

Please read instructions on the exam carefully: just to repeat some of them here, read the statements of the problems (and especially hints) very carefully. Also, if needed, you should make ÒreasonableÓ assumptions while solving these problems. If you still have questions or clarifications, we would prefer it if you ask them during the office hours by the instructor in Rm. 3118 of PSC from noon to 1 pm on Monday (December 10) or 2 to 3 pm. on each of Tuesday and Thursday. Note that, since this is an exam (i.e., not HW), no further hints/guidance can be provided during these office hours. 

If you will not be able to have all your questions answered during these times, then you can send emails to the instructor.

 

Needless to say, some of the problems can be tedious; so, get started working on them as soon as possible.

 

Finally, just to repeat (unlike with some of the previous HW's) the deadline for submitting final exam [i.e., noon on Mon. (Dec. 17)] will not be extended, barring emergencies.

(4). HW 11 posted here is due December 11 (Tuesday) by 5 pm in folder outside Rm. 3118 of PSC.

(5). Office hour schedule for the week of December 10-14 (all are by instructor in Rm. 3118 of PSC, but please note times carefully):

 

(a). Monday (December 10): noon to 1 pm.

 

(b). Tuesday: 2 to 3 pm.

 

(c). Thursday: 2 to 3 pm.

(6). Solutions to HW 2-11 are posted here.

(7). Course evaluations are due by December 11 here.

 

(8). The following notes on Hamiltonian formalism have been posted:

 

(a).  Lorentz force from Hamiltonian

 

(b). Angular momentum Poisson brackets

 

(c). Solving simple harmonic oscillator using canonical transformation

 

(d)  Summary of AA variables

 

(e). Action-angle variables: general formula

 

(f). Solving for frequency of simple harmonic oscillator by action-angle variable

 

(g). Summary of Hamilton-Jacobi method

 

(h). Solving for complete motion of simple harmonic oscillator using Hamilton-Jacobi method

 

(i). Action variable is adiabatic invariant

 

(j). Action-angle variables from generating function (H-J-like equation)

 

(9). Rough content of lectures for the last few weeks is various topics from Hamiltonian formalism:

 

(a). Basics: HamiltonÕs equations (sections 8.1, 8.2 and 8.5 of GPS; section 4.1 of DT)

 

(b). Poisson brackets (section 9.5-9.7 of GPS; section 4.3 of DT)

 

(c). Canonical transformations (chapter 9 of GPS; section 4.4 of DT)

 

(d). Action angle variable (sections 10.6 and 10.7 of GPS; section 4.5 of DT)

 

(e). Hamilton-Jacobi equation (chapter 10 of GPS; section 4.7 of DT)

 

(f). Adiabatic invariant, if time permits (section 12.5 of GPS; section 4.6 of DT)

 

(10).Take-home midterm solutions are posted here. 

 

Average score (out of maximum possible of 60) was about 52 (i.e., 87%), with a standard deviation of about 7 (i.e., 11%).

 

Average score on the first 5 HWÕs is about 89%, with standard deviation of about 7%.

(11). The following notes on rigid body motion were posted earlier:

(a). Kinematics of rigid body (including Expressing unit vector along z-axis in space frame in terms of body frame unit vectors)

 

(b). Dynamics of rigid body [including additional ones giving more details of how to go to principal axes and of the last step involved in  parallel axes theorem, which was also used in showing factorization of translation of and rotation about COM, i.e., sum over (masses of particles in body) x (their coordinate relative to COM) vanishes].

 

(c).  EulerÕs equations

 

(d). Free, symmetric top (in 3 ways)

 

(e). Heavy, symmetric top: general discussion

 

(f). Heavy, symmetric top: specific cases

 

(12). Lectures on October 30 (Tuesday) and November 1 (Thursday) were be conducted by Dr. Adil Hassam.

 

Dr. Hassam covered the topic of free, symmetric top in three ways (providing cross-checks), on which notes have been posted as above, i.e., 

 

(I). Simple method, using mainly angular momentum conservation (i.e., no Euler angles or Euler equations)

will show that the general motion is a (uniform) rotation of top about its own axis (spin) AND (uniform) precession 

of axis about (fixed) direction of angular momentum (taken to be vertical), but no nutation (i.e., tilt of 

axis relative to vertical is fixed)

 

(II). Next, we bring-in Euler angles to reproduce the same results.

 

Above 2 are mostly using space/fixed frame, while remaining way is 

 

(III). Using Euler equations, i.e., body/moving frame viewpoint