Calendar

This section lists the lecture topics for the course, organized by general topic areas.
Introduction

LEC # TOPICS
1 Mechanics is More than Equations of Motion


Lagrangian Mechanics

LEC # TOPICS
2 Principle of Stationary Action
3 Lagrange Equations
4 Hamilton's Principle
5 Coordinate Transformations and Rigid Constraints
6 Total-time Derivatives and the Euler-Lagrange Operator
7 State and Evolution - Chaos
8 Conserved Quantities


Rigid Bodies

LEC # TOPICS
9 Kinematics of Rigid Bodies, Moments of Inertia
10 Generalized Coordinates for Rigid Bodies
11 Motion of a Free Rigid Body
12 Axisymmetric Top
13 Spin-Orbit Coupling
14 Euler's Equations


Hamiltonian Mechanics

LEC # TOPICS
15 Hamilton's Equations
16 Legendre Transformation
17 Hamiltonian Action and Poisson Brackets
18 Phase Space Reduction
19 Phase-Space Evolution, Surfaces of Section
20 Autonomous Systems: Henon-Heiles
21 Exponential Divergence, Solar System
22 Liouville Theorem


Phase Space Structure

LEC # TOPICS
23 Linear Stability
24 Homoclinic Tangle
25 Integrable Systems
26 Poincare-Birkhoff Theorem
27 Invariant Curves -- KAM Theorem


Canonical Transformations

LEC # TOPICS
28 Canonical Transformations
29 Integral Invariants, Extended Phase Space
30 Generating Functions
31 Time Evolution is Canonical
32 Hamilton-Jacobi Equation
33 Lie Transforms


Perturbation Theory

LEC # TOPICS
34 Perturbation Theory with Lie Series
35 Small Denominators and Secular Terms
36 Nonlinear Resonances and Resonance Overlap
37 Second-Order Resonances
38 Adiabatic Chaos