- #1
jbrussell93
- 413
- 38
I'm in my junior year and recently took classical mechanics. We did not cover Lagrangian or Hamiltonian mechanics which was very shocking to me. My instructor said that Lagrangian mechanics involve very little physical intuition and therefore, time would be better spent with Newtonian mechanics. The closest thing we did involved using the "method of constraints" which supposedly leads into Lagrangian mechanics. While I feel that I learned A LOT in this course, I also feel that I missed out on something very important...
I took a math methods course concurrently with mechanics where we, the students, convinced the instructor to at least show us how to solve a problem using Lagrange's equations. He wrote down the equations and said, "That is all you need to know". We solved a single problem and that was it. Aside from the derivations, is this really all there is to it?
My school does not offer a second semester of mechanics for undergrads so I'm considering taking the graduate course next semester, although I don't have much room in my schedule. Of course, I can always learn the material on my own, but I've found that being formally presented the material in lecture and then tested on it helps me retain things. Is it worth taking a second semester? I am planning on graduate school in physics/geophysics.
Any advice is appreciated.
I took a math methods course concurrently with mechanics where we, the students, convinced the instructor to at least show us how to solve a problem using Lagrange's equations. He wrote down the equations and said, "That is all you need to know". We solved a single problem and that was it. Aside from the derivations, is this really all there is to it?
My school does not offer a second semester of mechanics for undergrads so I'm considering taking the graduate course next semester, although I don't have much room in my schedule. Of course, I can always learn the material on my own, but I've found that being formally presented the material in lecture and then tested on it helps me retain things. Is it worth taking a second semester? I am planning on graduate school in physics/geophysics.
Any advice is appreciated.