PHYS 325 :: Physics Illinois :: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Required Materials: What do I have to purchase for the course?

Required Materials

• iClicker (More info about iClickers in this course)

Recommended and optional materials

Classical mechanics is an old subject, and as such there are many texts. You don't have to purchase any textbook for this course. All required materials will be available on the course website. Some on reserve in Grainger Engineering Library are:

• John R. Taylor, "Classical Mechanics" (recommended: the schedule lists relevant sections for each lecture)
  
  
• Marion and Thornton, "Classical Dynamics of Particles and Systems." (optional)
• Kleppner and Kolenow, "An Introduction to Mechanics" (optional)

Reading the textbooks can help you get a different perspective on the course material. Furthermore, reading the indicated sections before class will give you an opportunity to familiarize yourself with the material of the lecture before the lecture is presented. Lectures tend to be much more clear when you have skimmed the material before hand. Lectures will be fairly self contained, so in principle one doesn't need a textbook at all. The prelecture readings are notes used by past instructors and are posted on the course website.

Computer algebra programs

UIUC students should have free access to Mathematica here. Mathematica is a powerful program that you're welcome to use for help, but it's not required for the course.

Classic Papers

Some of the classic texts in mechanics and relativity have been digitized and you can find them here:

• Newton's papers, including his famous "Principia," digitized by Cambridge University Press
• A. Einstein's "Special and General Theory of Relativity" (1916)
  You can find the original (in German) here