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Lecture 4: Newtonian Dynamics
September 4, 2025
Reading Assignment
- Read: Chapter 5; Supplementary Reading CH 1
- Study: Exs 5.1, 5.2, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 5.11
- Ignore: Exs 5.8, 5.9, 5.10 (we'll discuss static friction, but we won't use $\mu_s$)
Objectives
- (Continuing objective) Relate concepts of classical mechanics to “everyday” situations and discuss various applications of the concepts to practical problems in various fields of science, medicine and engineering.
- Given a physical situation, apply Newton's Second and Third Laws following these steps: a) sketch the situation, b) identify the forces, c) draw free-body (force) diagrams for each relevant object in the system (separate from original sketch), d) write Newton's Second Law for \(x\)-, \(y\)- and \(z\)- components for each mass (each component is a separate equation), and e) solve for unknowns.
- Solve problems involving weight forces, normal forces, tensions, spring forces, friction forces, and drag forces.
- Given the initial position and velocity of an object acted on by a force in one dimension, use the numerical iteration method to calculate the position and velocity several time increments later.
Homework
- Friday's Assigned Problems:
- Monday's Hand-In Problems:
Lecture Materials
Videos of example problems
To see the problem statement, click on the link below. To play the video example, click on the underlined words "Video Demonstration" near the top of the page with the problem statement.Pre-Class Entertainment