Physics

Role within programme and connections to other courses. This course introduces an entirely new approach to mechanics, one that is more elegant and more powerful but less intuitive than the Newtonian approach to which we have been exposed thus far. This is the last compulsory mechanics course and, therefore, includes the classical mechanics background for the quantum mechanics stream. Some computational exercises are included (e.g. the use of numerical differential equation solvers). Content. Calculus of variations, Lagrangian mechanics, two-body, central force problems (orbital motion), rotational motion of rigid bodies, coupled oscillators and normal modes, an introduction to Hamiltonian mechanics.