Physics 326
Classical Mechanics II

Prof. Benjamin Hooberman

News
& Info 		Discussion Homework Lecture notes Gradebook

Announcements

Final exam info
  • The final exam will be held Tues May 8 1:30-4:30 PM in 144 Loomis (discussion sections D0 and D1) and 1320 Digital Computer Lab (D2 and D3).
  • Final exam prep office hours will be held Thurs May 3 2-5 PM in 136 Loomis .
  • All material covered in class, discussion section, or homeworks is fair game for the final. The following reviews will help you prepare:
    • A review of Unit 1: Coupled Oscillators is available in Lecture13
    • A review of Unit 2: 2-body Central Force Problems and Unit 3: Moment of Inertia and Euler's Equations / Angles is available in Lecture24
    • A review of Unit 4: General Relativity is available here.

Practice exams and solutions

General Information

Course Description
This course is a continuation of PHYS 325 Classical Mechanics I. Topics covered include Central force motion, collisions and scattering, rotational motion, coupled oscillations, continuous media, and fluid dynamics.


Instructors
Prof. Benjamin Hooberman, 413 Loomis  → benhoob@illinois.edu with "[phys325]" in the subject line

TAs

Lecture
Loomis 144,   Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:30 - 1:50 PM

Discussions
Loomis 158,   Wed evenings, one hour in the period 5:00 - 9:00 PM. The exact time of your discussion will depend on the particular section for which you registered, see details here.

Office hours Thurs 2-6 PM, see room locations here

Course Text Books
  • "Classical Mechanics" by John R. Taylor
  • "Introduction to Classical Mechanics" by David Morin
    which is available online @ UIUC Library; off-campus access needs VPN in Tunnel All mode

    • Syllabus
    See here.

     

    Policies

    Course Grade Breakdown
    Homework will be 30% of the total grade (there are 11 total assignments and the lowest score will be dropped), lecture participation using i>Clickers 5%, discussion attendance 5%, and exams will count for 60% (two mid-term exams are worth 15% each, and the final exam is 30%).


    Homework due dates and time
    Homework assignments are due at 6 PM on Friday. Your solutions are to be deposited in the course homework box that is located on the second floor of Loomis Lab, at the entrance to the overpass to the Materials Research Lab (MRL) on the north side. Assignments which are late, but handed in by the following Monday at 6 PM will lose 20%. No late assignments will be accepted after Monday at 6 PM!


    General Policy Regarding Grading
    Homework is considered essential to learning course material, and should be treated as training for future work rather than as a test of what you already know. You should start working on an assignment early, close to when it is posted on Friday. We encourage students to work together, and get help from the professor or TAs when they encounter difficulties. We will happily explain difficult concepts during office hours and check your work for errors. For this reason, scores on homework are typically high (~95%). Don't make the mistake of starting your homework the day before it is due!

    Partial credit will be given on homework and exams if and only if the work is coherent. A random scattering of thoughts will not be awarded points. Simple numerical errors will not be strongly punished, however students are expected to be careful about their work and will lose points for errors which give incorrect physical results. The steps to receiving partial credit are: (i) write your solution neatly and coherently using equations and words to describe what you are doing (ii) checking your answer for consistency e.g. are units correct, does the solution behave correctly in known limits? Write as though you are explaining the problem to somebody who doesn't already know the answer! Expect the exams to be challenging but to be curved accordingly.

    Useful references

    Formula Sheets
    1D Formulae
    3D Calculus
    Midterm #1
    Midterm #2
    Final

    Useful results from Phys 225 (Courtesy of Prof. Naomi Makins)
    6 Basic Pieces
    The meaning of Grad, Div and Curl
    Strategy for integration in three dimensions