Course Information
Instructor: P. David Flammer
Office: MH447A
Office Hours: TBA
Course Announcements and Links
- 11/14/2011 - No homework this week. Just a little practice test. Here you go:media:practicTest2.pdf. Solutions: media:practicTest2SolnV3.pdf; Note the solutions to number 1 changed. Originally I had solved the first problem like it wasn't accelerating (the problem with writing more than one version of a problem; now I have to think of something else for the test tomorrow); the original solutions are: media:practicTest2Soln.pdf
- 10/13/2011 - Extra credit! Since I fell behind slightly in the lectures, I haven't introduced the Hamiltonian stuff. If you read through section 7.10 in the book, the problems are honestly pretty easy (7.22 and 7.23). But if you don't feel comfortable doing them, you can turn in your homework on next Wednesday for full credit. Those people who turn it in tomorrow will get 10% extra credit.
- 9/29/2011 - On second thought, I think I'm well enough for office hours. I'll hold them in the Physics library (MH335).
- 9/29/2011 - I got super sick after lecture on Wednesday 9/28. So I won't make it to office hours unfortunately. Please email me with any questions you have, and I will try to respond to those as quickly as possible.
- 9/29/2011 - Here are the solutions to the first practice test: media:pt1-pg1.jpg media:pt1-pg2.jpg media:pt1-pg3.jpg Note: On the solution to Number 1, I lost a minus sign on the last two lines of the solution. There should be an extra minus sign inside the square root in the answer.
- 9/28/2011 - I said in class that the test covers Chapters 2,3, and 5. Anything covered in lecture and the section on rockets are also fair game on the test, so make sure you review all that material.
- Due to the continuing growing pains of numerical programming, I will allow people to turn in their homeworks on Monday in class with no late penalty. To reward those students who turn it in on time, I will give you 10% extra credit on the homework if you turn it in in class today.
- In email correspondence to me, please write PHGN350 in the subject line (exactly like that). It will help me respond to those emails faster.
- Exam 1 will be in class on 9/30/2011. It will be a 1 hour test, but I will allow people to stay until 12:30 to finish it.
- Exam 2 will be in class on 11/16/2011 (Note I had changed this briefly, but this is now on the original date). Again,it will be a 1 hour test, but I will allow people to stay until 12:30 to finish it.
- Here's a nice Mathematica tutorial made by Zach Boerner: media:mathematicaHelp.nb link title
Course Material
Syllabus
Homework
- Problem set 1 due Friday, 9/2:
- Register your iclicker at http://iclicker.com/support/registeryourclicker/
- Send me (pflammer@mines.edu) an email with a picture of yourself, and a paragraph description of who you are. This will give me a hope of knowing who you are by the end of the semester.
- Do the following problems: Thornton 2.6, 2.8, 2.13, 2.14, 2.15, 2.22; Solutions: media:350-fa11-HW1Soln.pdf
- Problem set 2 due Friday 9/9:
- Solve the following analytical problems: Thornton 2.25 (except part (d)), 2.28, 2.42; Solutions: media:350-fa11-HW2Soln.pdf
- Do the following numerical problem: media:350-fa11-NHW1.pdf; Solution: media:350-fa11-NHW1Soln.pdf
- Some guidance: We would like you to discretize the integral equations in order to solve this. For instance, a_y=a_y(y,v_y). You know y_0 and v_y0. If you break the problem up into very small time steps dt's, then at time dt v_y(dt)=v_y0+a_y(y_0,v_y0)*dt. Then y(dt)=y_0+v_y0*dt+1/2*a_y(y_0,v_y0)*dt^2. If your dt is small enough, you can even neglect the last term. To get the next time step, you do the same thing again. v_y(2*dt)=v_y(dt)+a_y(y(dt),v_y(dt)) and y(2*dt)=y(dt)+v_y(dt)*dt+1/2*a_y(y(dt),v_y(dt))*dt^2. To get it the stuff at 3*dt, you repeat. Put this into a Do loop or a For loop, and you can do this out to infinity and beyond (not really).
- Problem set 3 due Friday 9/16:
- Do the following problems: Thornton 3.1, 3.2, 3.7, 3.11, 3.13, 3.14; Solutions: media:350-fa11-HW3Soln.pdf
- Problem set 4 due Friday 9/23:
- Solve the following analytical problems: Thornton 3.18, 3.28, 3.38
- Do the following numerical problem: media:350-fa11 NHW2.pdf; Solution: media:350-fa11-NHW2Soln.pdf
- Note: Use the same shooting method as above.
- Note 2: Read through the whole thing before you start programming! I would use the solution from NHW1 as a guide of how to program it. If you do the plots and the module the way it's done there, this will go pretty fast.
- Note 3: We are still ignoring a few facts in this assignment. Mars of course has weather due to the fact that it is spinning. Go ahead and assume that the speed of the wind everywhere with respect to the inertial reference system is zero. This is of course probably not the right thing to do, but let's take one step at a time.
- Problem set 5 due Friday 9/30 (the day of the test):
- Do the following analytical problems: Thornton 5.3, 5.7, 5.10, 5.14 (build it in spherical shells); Solutions: media:350-fa11-HW5Soln.pdf
- Problem set 6 due Friday 10/7/2011:
- Do the following analytical problems: Thornton 6.3, 6.7, 6.12; Solutions: media:350-fa11-HW6Soln.pdf
- Hints: On 6.7, don't try to constrain the motion of the light. Just try to figure out the full path of the light moving from the starting point to the final point taking into account that the speed is c/n (c=speed of light in space and n is the index of refraction). you will end up getting that the n*sin(th)=constant so it moves in a straight line if n=const and if n changes theta must change so that n1*sin(th1)=n2*sin(th2).
- Problem set 7 due Friday 10/14/2011:
- Do the following analytical problems: Thornton 7.6, 7.7, 7.10 (solve for position as a function of time for (a), and set up differential equations of motion for (b)), 7.14, 7.15, 7.22, 7.23; Solutions: media:350-fa11-HW7Soln.pdf
- Problem set 8 due Friday 10/21/2011 (with extra credit, Monday without):
- Another numeric assignment: Yay! media:350-fa11 NHW3v2.pdf; Solutions: media:350-fa11-NHW3Soln.pdf
- Note: I originally wrote "energy density" in part (b). That was a mistake on my part. Total energy is what you're investigating. Also, the percent error I am talking about is the difference between the current energy and the original energy (since physically it should be constant).
- Problem set 9 due Friday 10/28/2011:
- Do the following analytical problems: Thornton 8.6 (use conservation of energy and momentum), 8.10, 8.11, 8.13 (this is similar to the example from lecture that we did on Monday); Solutions: media:350-fa11-HW9Soln.pdf
- Problem set 9.5 due Friday 10/35/2011:
- Write down all the cool stuff that you are going to do this week because there isn't any homework in PH350 and don't turn it in.
- Problem set 10 due Friday 11/11/2011:
- Do the following analytical problems: Thornton 10.6, 10.7, 10.9, 10.11 (do it in the fixed frame), 10.15
- Problem set 11 due Monday 12/5/2011 (you're last ginormous homework of the year):
- Do the following analytical problems: Thornton 9.49, 9.50, 11.4, 11.12, 11.18
- Do the following numerical homework: media:350-fa11-NHW4.pdf
Lecture Notes
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