1 Introduction
Welcome to the first year “Core Physics” unit at the University of Bristol. This unit is divided into four sections, covering Classical Mechanics, the Properties of Matter, Oscillations and Waves, and Quantum Mechanics. These notes are for the Mechanics section of the course.
1.1 Why study mechanics?
In addition to learning about mechanics, we will learn how to simplify problems, translate them into mathematical language, and explore the solutions. This is a skill that will be useful in many other areas of physics and beyond. Examples of mechanics problems we’ll be able to think about include the following.
- How do you make a space telescope point in the right direction?
- What impulse do I need to give a defective object to knock it off a production line, and where will it end up?
- I’d like to store energy when demand for electricity is low. Maybe energy could be stored in a flywheel, or by lifting massive weights. Are these schemes feasible and which would be best?
- What torque do the electric motors in my car need to provide if I want to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in under 3 seconds?
A good knowledge of classical mechanics will provide a foundation for future courses. Often more advanced problems reduce to something that looks like a classical mechanics problem.
1.2 Course logistics
You should familiarise yourself with the Blackboard page for the unit. This is the primary source for information about the unit. The lecture, problems class, and workshop schedule should appear in your personal timetable.
There will be 15 Classical Mechanics lectures delivered over 5 weeks. While you have these notes, it will be useful for you to make some notes yourself. In addition, it really helps to learn physics by doing physics. To support the development of your problem solving skills there will be problems classes, and workshops. The sixth week will be a “consolidation” week where the are no new mechanics lectures so you can review or catch up on the course so far. An overview of the timetable is shown in Table 1.1 but you should check your personal timetable to confirm the times and locations.
| Week (start) | Day | Activity | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (16 Sep) | Mon | Introduction to the unit (1 hr) | |
| 1 | Wed Thu Thu | Lectures (\(3 \times 1\) hr) | |
| 1 | See your calendar | Workshop (2 hour) | 0% |
| 2 (23 Sep) | Mon Wed Thu | Lectures (\(3 \times 1\) hr) | |
| 2 | Fri | Problems class (1 hour) | |
| 3 (30 Sep) | Mon Wed Thu | Lectures (\(3 \times 1\) hr) | |
| 3 | See your calendar | Workshop (2 hour) - group | 3.75% |
| 4 (7 Oct) | Mon Wed Thu | Lectures (\(3 \times 1\) hr) | |
| 4 | Fri | Problems class (1 hour) | |
| 5 (14 Oct) | Mon Wed Thu | Lectures (\(3 \times 1\) hr) | |
| 5 | See your calendar | Workshop (2 hour) - individual | 3.75% |
| 6 (21 Oct) | Consolidation week | No lectures | |
| 6 | Fri | Problems class (1 hr) | |
| December | TBD | In-person mid-unit exam (1.5 hr) | 20% |
| Next summer | TBD | In-person final exam (3 hr) | 50% |
1.3 Textbooks
There are several textbooks relevant to mechanics and the core physics content in the first year. These books are available in the library and on-line as eBooks. It is good to get in the habit of reading around the subject and looking at textbooks. These will provide a different viewpoint of the same material which you might find helps your learning, they also contain examples you might want to look at, as well as additional material that is not covered in the lectures. While this additional material is not examinable, it might be useful to you in the future.
Tipler, Mosca, and Mosca (2008) is a general textbook that covers all of first year core physics. Classical Mechanics is a well established field and we will generally follow the structure and content as this book. This is available as an eBook which you can find by following the “Reading list” link in Blackboard (it will be on the panel on the left).
Kleppner and Kolenkow (2014) is a more specialised textbook that covers mechanics at an introductory level.
Goldstein et al. (2014) is an advanced textbook that covers all of the classical mechanics you are likely to need at university level.
1.4 Why should you come to lectures?
You are part of a community of like-minded students all interested in studying Physics. You can discuss the topics covered in lectures, and ask each other questions as you learn together. It is important to remember that your degree is not a competition. There are no “quotas” and everyone can do well. You can help each other!
What if you find lectures boring? You will still have something in common to talk about with your friends. If you are daydreaming you can think about how some of the concepts can be generalised, or taken to the extreme. For example, we might be working on a one-dimensional problem, but could that be generalised to 2, 3, 4 or even infinite-dimensions? What happens in the limit as things get faster or smaller – you might end up in a regime where relativity or quantum mechanics are important. Even the simplest things can be quite profound if you think about them deeply (Einstein was good at this). If you are daydreaming in lectures maybe try to daydream about physics!
Finally, I hope to convey some of my enthusiasm for physics to you, and explain why we’re covering this content in mechanics. I hope you will find the lectures interesting and enjoyable. I am always happy to discuss physics and answer questions after lectures.