Textbooks: L. Landau and E. Lifshitz, Course of Theoretical Physics, Vol.1, Mechanics; H. Goldstein, Classical Mechanics; S. Strogatz, Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos.
Rough outline of content: Lagrangian formulations, central forces, small oscillations, rigid bodies and rotation, Hamiltonian formulations, canonical transformations. Also included are glimpses of Hamilton-Jacobi theory, dynamical systems (1-D continuous/iterative maps, fixed points, stability).
Midsem exam, 35%, [Spr '11]
Short quiz, 10%, [Spr '11]
Endsem exam, 50%. [Spr '11]
[Spr '08] Also included is a short term-paper (5%), on a topic of your choice, consisting of some reading/analysis, with a report and presentation required eventually.