The course teaches the fundamentals of particle motion starting with the equations of motion that describe the motion of an object.
Mechanics is important for understanding nature, and is essential for the study of science, engineering, life sciences, and other specialized courses. Students will learn the laws of motion and the mathematical description of motion. This will allow them to understand particle mechanics and they will be able to solve most general problems in mechanics.
By completing this course, students will be able to:
1) Understand the concepts of velocity, acceleration, force, momentum, angular momentum, torque, work, energy, etc., correctly, and describe them mathematically.
2) Understand the laws of motion — the laws of conservation of momentum, angular momentum, and energy that are derived from the laws of motion — correctly, and solve actual mechanical problems by applying these laws.
3) Find mathematical solutions to problems in mechanics, expressed by the appropriate equations, and explain the physical meaning of said solutions.
position, velocity, acceleration, momentum, force, laws of motion, law of conservation of momentum, free fall, simple harmonic motion, parabolic motion, work, kinetic energy, potential energy, law of conservation of energy, central force, angular momentum, torque, law of conservation of angular momentum, universal gravitation, Kepler's laws
✔ Specialist skills | Intercultural skills | Communication skills | Critical thinking skills | ✔ Practical and/or problem-solving skills |
Two-thirds of each class are devoted to fundamentals and the rest to advanced content or application. To allow students to get a good understanding of the course contents and practice application, problems related to the contents of this course are provided in Exercises in Physics I.
Course schedule | Required learning | |
---|---|---|
Class 1 | Equation of motion | Recognize a difference between high-school physics and physics in university. |
Class 2 | Ordinary differential equation | Become able to solve a simple ODE. |
Class 3 | Newton's law of motion | Recognize the difference between inertial mass and gravitational mass. |
Class 4 | Examples without frictions | Become able to write down ODEs for some concrete examples. |
Class 5 | Examples with frictions | Become able to write down ODEs for some concrete examples with frictions. |
Class 6 | Potentials | Recognize the concept of the potential. |
Class 7 | Newton's law of universal gravitation and planetary motion (Kepler’s laws) | Understand the motion of a particle under universal gravitation and Kepler’s laws of planetary motion. |
Rikigaku
Morikazu Toda
Iwanami Publication
Not in particular
Learning achievement is evaluated by a final exam.
No prerequisites.