Examination procedure
Written and oral exam.
Examination procedure notes
Written test in January 2026. Colloquio (written and oral test) between March and April 2026. Final exam (written and oral test) in July 2026.
Prerequisites
General physics course for first-year students in Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics.
Syllabus
- Units of measurement and dimensional analysis.
- Reference frames. Vectors. Kinematics of a point particle and rigid body.
- Newton's laws. Forces and moments. Equations of motion.
- Energy conservation in one dimension. The phase space.
- Oscillations: harmonic oscillator, driven oscillator, damped oscillator.
- Energy conservation in three dimensions, work, and potential energy.
- Central forces. Angular momentum. Effective potential.
- Momentum conservation. Center of mass. The two-body problem.
- Gravity. Kepler's laws. Multipole expansion.
- The Lagrangian formalism. Euler-Lagrange equation. The Noether theorem
- Coupled oscillators: normal modes.
- Moment of inertia. Torque. Fixed-direction angular momentum.
- The General case of angular momentum. Angular velocity. Inertia tensor. Principal axes.
- Euler's equations. Spinning tops and gyroscopes.
- Tidal forces.
- Kinetic theory of gases. Pressure, temperature, and kinetic energy. Ideal gas law, Boltzmann law, specific heat.
- Temperature and heat. First and second laws of thermodynamics. Entropy.
Bibliographical references
Landau Lev D., Lifšits Evgenij M, Fisica Teorica 1 Meccanica.
Goldstein H., Poole C.P., Safko J.L., Classical Mechanics, 3rd edition.
Morin D., Introduction to Classical Mechanics.
Fermi E., Thermodynamics.