The Department of Physics

Course Description

This course is designed to introduce the student to topics in Mechanics. Understanding Physics is crucial to the study of all sciences. Physics is the study of matter, energy, space and time and gaining a better understanding of this subject is a stepping stone to understanding  he world and many of the new technologies being developed today. For this reason the topics covered address Newtonian Mechanics including: kinematics, laws of motion, work and energy, systems of particles, momentum, circular motion, oscillations, and gravitation and  oncludes with topics in fluid mechanics. Through in-class discussions, problem-solving sessions and practical sessions, the student will have the opportunity to improve his/her ability to reason through challenging situations in the physical world using basic principles to develop appropriate solutions. This course will be assessed through in-course assignments, practical exercises/reports and a final examination.

CONTENT

The topics covered address Newtonian Mechanics including: Kinetics: Displacement, velocity, speed, instantaneous velocity, acceleration, motion with constant acceleration. Newton’s Laws & Applications: Newton’s first law: the law of inertia, inertial reference frames: Newton’s second law: force, mass: Gravity, weight; Newton’s third law; Static friction, kinetic friction, motion along a curved path, banked curves. Gravitation: Kepler’s laws, Newton’s laws of gravity, gravitational potential energy, escape speed, gravitational field. Work, Energy and Conservation of Energy: Work-kinetic energy theorem, work done by a variable force, work and energy in 3 dimensions. Potential energy, conservative forces, potential energy functions, potential energy and equilibrium, conservation of energy, work-energy theorem. Systems of particles, Momentum, Rotation and Static Equilibrium: Center of mass, gravitational potential energy of a system, conservation of linear momentum. Kinetic energy of a system in 1D (head-on collisions) and 3D, impulse and average force, rotational kinematics. Fluids: Density, pressure in fluids, buoyancy. Archimedes’ Principle, Bernoulli’s equation, viscous flow.
Practical exercises are related to the theory.

GOALS/AIMS:

The goals and aims of PHYS 1221 are:

•  To reinforce and extend the students’ understanding of the fundamental Physics concepts in Mechanics.
•  To provide students with the required foundation to progress to the advanced Physics courses.
•  To excite students such that they would desire to pursue advanced Physics.

In the laboratory experimental processes, the students are expected to deepen their understanding of the relations between experiment and theory.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

This course emphasizes the application of the basic principles pertaining to Mechanics to solve practical problems in these areas of study. Upon completion of this course students should have successfully attained adequate conceptual and analytical comprehension of Mechanics, and should thus be able to:

• Distinguish between a scalar quantity and a vector quantity and perform vector algebra.
• Describe and perform calculations related to one and two dimensional motion, as well as rotational and rolling motion, using the basic equations of kinematics.
• Identify, describe and determine mathematically, the cause of linear, rotational and rolling motions, by describing/determining forces, torques, work and energy, impulse and momentum associated with objects undergoing each type of motion.
• Describe mathematically simple harmonic motion and perform simple calculations.
• Perform and interpret the results of simple experiments and demonstrations of physical principles.

Assessment