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Home > Courses > 2P20
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PHYS 2P20
- Introductory Mechanics
- Reading week: October 14-17, 2025.
- Assignment 3 has been posted, due 2025-10-21.
- Midterm is on Monday, October 21, in class.
- Assignment 4 has been posted, due 2025-11-04.
These are previously made announcements:
- Welcome to the home page of PHYS 2P20. Watch this space for important announcements.
- Lectures: Tue Fri 09:30-11:00, TH257, starting Friday, Sept.5.
- This course uses Brightspace primarily
to accept your completed lab reports. For up-to-date information, announcements,
and course materials, monitor this webpage.
- You are expected to prepare your lab reports using LaTeX. It is available on all computers in
Physics labs, and online at overleaf.com.
In preparation, students are encouraged to open overleaf accounts. Some useful resources for writing reports are here, and will be reviewed in class.
- Labs: Mo(L1) We(L3) 14:00-17:00, in B203, starting Monday, Sept.8.
The first lab session(s) will include an introduction to computer use in the context of a Physics lab course. We'll cover basic interactions with the Linux operating system, file and data management and sharing on the Physics cluster, eXtrema and other plotting/data analysis packages, and writing lab reports using LaTeX.
The introduction to eXtrema will make use of the exercises of Experiment 1 from the lab manual.
- Assignment 1 has been posted, due 2025-09-19.
- Discussed in class: Pas de Deux by Alan Lightman
- Discussed in class: Life at low Reynolds number, by E.M.Purcell
- Assignment 2 has been posted, due 2025-10-03.
What do I need to bring into the course?
- This course is a core course of the Physics program, and requires Y1 Physics and Math courses as prerequisites.
Course Goals
- to develop a more comprehensive understanding of Newton's laws of motion and their origin in and application to real physical systems;
- to discover the underlying conservation laws and the manner in which physical systems evolve with time;
- to gain experience in the use of advanced mathematical tools (e.g. advanced algebra and trigonometry, analytic geometry, differential and integral calculus, differential equations);
- to develop experimental data analysis, error estimation, and numerical modelling skills;
- to enhance scientific writing skills.
Textbook
- An Introduction to Mechanics, second edition, by Daniel Kleppner and Robert Kolenkow. Cambridge University Press, 2013.
| Component |
% of the final mark |
Notes |
| Homework |
20% |
Problem sets, every week. Late submissions have a sinking cap of 15%/day. |
| Midterm test |
10% |
An in-class test, date TBA. Only a calculator and one letter-size (one-sided) self-prepared formula sheet allowed; no complete solutions. |
| Final exam |
35% |
Minimum passing grade 50%, marks given for correct answers. Only a calculator and one letter-size (one-sided) self-prepared formula sheet allowed; no complete solutions. |
| Labs |
35% |
Completion of all labs and submission of all lab reports is required to obtain a grade in the course. Late submissions will not be accepted. |
This is an approximate list, based on previous experience. As the course progresses, some of topics
may be removed and some others may get added.
- Vectors, a review of concepts
- algebra of vectors
- multiplication of two vectors: dot- and cross-products
- base vectors, orthonormality
- derivatives of vectors
- Kinematics in 2D and 3D
- elementary kinematics
- Ex: uniform circular motion
- solving kinematic equations
- 2D motion in polar coordinates
- approximation methods: Taylor series and related expansions
- Newton's Laws
- Newton's Laws
- inertial and non-inertial frames
- procedure for applying Newton's Laws to complex systems
- examples; constraints; non-physical solutions
- linear restoring force
- momentum, impulse
- work and kinetic energy
- Harmonic oscillator
- potential energy, damping, formal solutions to the DE
- classification of solutions, under- over- and critically-damped cases
- quality factor $Q$
- forced (driven) HO, resonance
- Ex: analogy with LCR circuits
- Kinematics in 3D
- work and energy in 3D, potentials, conservative forces
- momentum of a system of particles
- center-of-mass, extended bodies, c.o.m. coordinates
- rocket motion
- momentum transport
- collisions between masses
- collisions and the c.o.m. coordinates
- Rotational motion and angular momentum
- angular momentum of a particle
- importance of the 3rd dimension: a conical pendulum
- conservation of angular momentum
- Ex: Kepler's 2nd law
- Ex: Bohr's atom, quantization of angular momentum
- Ex: torque on a conical pendulum
- angular momentum associated with a fixed axis' rotation
- moment of inertia
- parallel axis theorem
- solving problems involving torques
- the physical pendulum, center of gyration
- motions with both translation and rotation
- modified work-energy theorem
- generalization of rotational motion; infinitesimal rotations
- stability of rotating objects; a gyroscope
- generalization of angular momentum; tensor of inertia
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