Hello, my name is Mihir Shetty, and I’m doctoral candidate in the physics department at NYU. Feel free to poke around, and see what tickles your fancy.
Mechanics: Fundamentals and Applications
Notes for Mechanics class for Spring 2023. Chapter 1 Main Concepts Scalars, Vectors and Matrices Derivatives of Position Chapter 2 Main Concepts Newton’s Laws Definitions Conservation Laws Chapter 3 Main Concepts Chapter 4 Main Concepts Nonlinear Oscillations Phase diagrams Plane Pendulum Chapter 5 Main Concepts Chapter 6 Main Concepts Chapter 7 Main Concepts Chapter 8 Main Concepts Chapter 9 Main Concepts Chapter 10 Main Concepts Chapter 11 Main Concepts Euler Equations Force Field Chapter 1 Main Concepts Scalars, Vectors and Matrices A scalar is some quantity that is invariant under any coordinate transformation A vector is an object in $\mathbb{R^{n}}$ that is invariant under rotations Vectors are closed under addition and scalar multiplication The Dot product is defined as $\vec{A}\cdot \vec{B} = \Sigma_{i} A_{i}B_{i}$ or equivalently $\vec{A}\cdot \vec{B} = |A| |B| \cos(\vec{A},\vec{B})$ $|A| = \sqrt{\Sigma_{i} A_{i}^{2}}$ This is invariant under rotation (since it is a scalar) Abelian The Cross Product is defined as $C = A \times B$ where $C_{i} = \Sigma_{j,k} \epsilon_{ijk}A_{j}B_{k}$ whre $\epsilon_{ijk}$ is the Levi-Civata tensor (0 if indices are the same, 1 if an even permutation of 1,2,3 and -1 if an odd permutation of 1,2,3) Alternatively $|C| = |A||B|\sin\theta$ Non-Abelian $A\times(B\times C) = (A\cdot C)B-(A\cdot B)C$ $A\cdot (B\times C) = B\cdot (C\times A) = C \cdot (A\times B) = ABC$ Matrices are objects in $\mathbb{R^{n\times m}}$ A simple 2D rotation is given by (can be derived by rotating the primed coordinate system around the orign by some angle and adding up lengths) $x_1^{’} = x_1 \cos \theta +x_2 \sin \theta$ $x_2^{’} = -x_1 \sin \theta +x_2 \cos \theta$ In general $x_{i} = \Sigma_{j=1}^{3} \lambda_{ji} x_{j}^{’}$ where the $\lambda$ are the directional cosines defined by $\lambda_{ij} = \cos(x_{i}^{’},x_j)$ ie....