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Central Forces
 
Winter 2010

First Day Handout

Daily Notices

Tentative: Check Often For Updates

Copies of the course notes can be found here:

     Classical Mechanics

     Quantum (Angular Momentum & Ring/Sphere)

     Quantum (Radial Eqn & H Atom)

     Lecture 1. Lectures 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,9,,10 are available as of 3/5/10 - just change the lecture number in the url.

     Empty table for ring problem.

     Completed table for particle in an infinite well problem.

Day Topic:
  Subtopic
Reading
  (Main, Alternate,  Deep)
Due Dates
1
Mon
2/22
Introduction
Systems of Particles
  Center of Mass
Two-body Problems
  Central Forces
  Reduced Mass
Classical Angular Momentum
  Torque
  Conservation of Angular Momentum
  Kepler's Second Law
T 1.1-1.2, 1.4
Classical Mechanics Notes 1-3
T 3.3, 10.1
 
T 8.1
T 8.2
CM Notes 4
 
T 3.1, 3.4-3.5, 10.1
 
          
2
Tue
2/23
Spherical Coordinates
Velocity and Acceleration
  Worksheet: Vel. & Acc.-Polar Coords.
Circles, Ellipses, Hyperbolas
  Maple: Conic Sections
  Worksheet: Conic Sections
CM Notes 5
CM Notes 6
 
 
    
3
Wed
2/24
Equations of Motion: F=ma
T 8.3
 
HW 1
Solutions
4
Thu
2/25
Orbit Shapes
Inverse Square Forces
  Kepler's first law
Equations of Motion: E=T+U
Effective Potentials
  Maple: Effective Potentials
  Worksheet: Effective Potentials
CM Notes 7-9
 
 
T 8.4
 
     
5
Fri
2/26
Inverse Square Forces
  Orbits
  Maple: Orbits
  Worksheet: Orbits
  Visualize orbits
Other Force Laws
Orbits Summary
Recap
T 8.5-8.7
 
 
 
 
 
 
     HW 2
Solutions
6
Mon
3/1
Schrödinger's Eqn.
  Spherical Symmetry
  Separation of Variables
QM Notes Ch 8.1-8.4
QM Notes 8.7
GQM 4.1
  
7
Tue
3/2
The Ring
  z-component of angular momentum
  Degeneracy
  Comparison to Particle in a Box
Quantum States on a Ring
  Worksheet: Quantum states on a Ring
QM Notes Ch 8.5
G 9.3
 
 
 
 
 
      
8
Wed
3/3
Time Dependence on a Ring
  Maple: The Ring
  Worksheet: The Ring
 
 
HW 3
Solutions
9
Thu
3/4
The Rigid Rotor
Legendre's Equation
  Change of Variables
  Series Solutions
Legendre Polynomials
  Rodrigues' formula
  Graphs
  Orthonormality
Legendre Polynomial Series
  Maple: Finding Legendre Coefficients
  Worksheet: Finding Legendre Coefficients
QM Notes Ch 8.6.1-8.6.4
G 11.1
GQM 4.3
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
          
10
Fri
3/5
Legendre's Associated Equation
  Legendre Functions
Spherical Harmonics
  Orthonormality
QM Notes Ch 8.63
GQM 4.3/GQM 4.1.2
QM Notes 8.6.5-8.6.6.
HW 4
Solutions
11
Mon
3/8
Spherical Harmonics
  Graphs
  Maple: YLM's
  Worksheet: YLM's
  Symmetries, parity, degeneracy
 
 
 
 
    
12
Tue
3/9
Quantum States of the Rigid Rotor
  Maple: Linear Combinations of YLMs
  Worksheet: Linear Combinations of YLMs
Angular Momentum
  Commutation Relations
Orbital Angular Momentum
  Raising & lowering operators
 
 
 
GQM 4.3, G 11.2
 
     
13
Wed
3/10
The Radial Equation (start on Tue)
  Radial Functions
  Asymptotic Behavior
  Laguerre polynomials
  Maple: Radial Wavefunctions
  Worksheet: Radial Wavefunctions
QM Notes Ch 9
GQM 4.2, G 13.1
 
 
 
 
HW 5
Solutions
   
14
Thu
3/11
Hydrogen Atom Wave Functions
  Symmetries, parity, degeneracy
  Maple: Hydrogen Probablility Densities
  Worksheet: Hydrogen Probability Densities
Applications
QM Notes Ch 9
GQM 4.2, G 13.2
 
 
GQM 4.2.2
    
15
Fri
3/12
The Classical Limit
Review
 
 
 
HW 6
Solutions
Maple Sol

Legendre Polys

Overhead


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