Preparing for Classical Mechanics: Tips for Success

[senatorarmstrong]

Hello PF,

I am taking classical mechanics this fall and I am horrified.

I am just not sure if I have the mathematics background for the class. I am still finishing differential equations (about half way done) and I am almost done with calculus 3. The pre-requisite for the class is DE

Essentially, I have gone through all of "Essential Calculus" by James Stewart except for the vector calculus chapter. I know it's an important chapter. I intend on reading up on that last chapter prior to the start of the fall semester. I took a peak into my classical textbook and I saw that green's theorem and strokes' theorem were mentioned in the first chapter. The text I am using for classical is "Classical Dynamics of Particles" and Systems by Thornton.

For differential equations I have only gotten 4 chapters into "Fundamentals of Differential Equations" by Kent Nagle. Essentially, I have studied basic initial value problems, direction fields, separable equations, linear equations, exact equations, Euler's method, special integrating factor. I also studied linear second order equations. This includes homogeneous linear equations, auxiliary equations with complex roots, and non homogeneous equations. I have also deviated from the course slightly to study a chapter on mathematical models and numerical methods for solving first order equations. I did this because I missed physics and this chapter had a lot of it.

I would genuinely appreciate some honest feedback.

Thank you!

Jacob

 

[jtbell]

Have you contacted the person who is going to teach the course? He/she is best able to tell you whether you are properly prepared to take it, especially if (as it appears) you have not actually taken the prerequisite math courses, but instead have been self-studying the material.

At the college where I taught, students have to get permission from the instructor to register for a course for which they didn't have the prerequisite courses already.

 

[Dr.D]

Just read the class description in the catalog if you cannot talk to the instructor. That will give you some idea what topics are covered, and if you can look at the textbook, you can see the math required there.

 

[Dishsoap]

I agree that you should talk to the professor of the class to see if you'll be okay. Having self-studied Thornton's Classical Mechanics book, I think you will be okay with your knowledge of differential equations (assuming that the topics you have listed are ones you are well acquainted with). However, you need to be intimately familiar with vector calculus, so I'd be concerned that you haven't covered that yet. Without it, you're going to be lost at chapter 1 (as it seems you've learned).