Books to be followed

N. C. Rana and P. S. Joag Murray R. Spiegel

← I will mainly follow this

 Newton’s Law
Mechanics: Quantitative relation between interaction and motion

● First Law: Law of inertia (Valid for inertial frame of reference)

● 2nd Law: Law of causality (F = dP/dt, where F = force is the cause and the rate of change of
momentum dP/dt is the effect)
● 3rd Law: Law of reciprocity (Every action has its own equal and opposite reaction)
● 4th Law: Law of superposition
 Mechanics of a system of particles
A system in which two or more particles are present is called system of particles or many body system.

A two body system which is made up of mass m1 & m2

A point at which the whole mass of the body is concentrated is called centre of mass of that body.

It may be within or outside, depending on the system.

Many particles
Total Mass

Center of Mass
 Forces
In order to derive conservation laws for our system, we have to identify what mass particles it contains and what
forces act upon the individual particles.
External: Forces arising outside the system. Let us denote
the resultant of all the external forces acting on the system
as

Internal: Forces due to pairwise particle interactions. This

force could arise from gravitation attraction or from internal
force due to the connections between particles. It could also
arise from collisions between individual particles that, as we
have seen, produce equal and opposite impulsive forces that
conserve momentum.
 Forces
From Newton’s 2nd Law:

So the centre of mass moves as if it were a particle of mass M acted on by the total external force F.
Center of Mass and Equation of Motion
 Center of Mass and Equation of Motion

Equation of motion
 Momentum of a particle
Newton’s laws are more precisely stated in terms of momentum.

Velocity and Momentum are in the same direction

Newton’s 2nd Law: Rate of change of linear momentum equals the applied force.

Most general statement, also handles the problem of a system where the mass varies with time,

If the total external forces vanishes , the total momentum is conserved.

 Conservation of Momentum
For two objects with initial masses of m1 and m2 and initial velocities of u1 and u2 with final velocities after collision
to be v1 and v2, we can write the law as

The vector sum of all the given momenta for a closed system with no external force acting on it remains constant

The same is the case for CM

 Types of Collision: Elastic Collision
Elastic Collision Inelastic Collision
 Torque and Angular Momentum
Torque or the moment of the Force about the point O is:
�=� �
The magnitude is a measure of the “turning effect” produced on the particle by the force

Angular momentum or Moment of Momentum about the point O.

Torque acting on a particle equals the time rate of change in its angular momentum �=� �
 Conservation of Angular Momentum

If the total external torque is zero then angular momentum is always conserved.

Orbit of particle
 Conservation of Energy

forces are derivable from a scalar

potential function and they are
central
� =− �� E = T + U is conserved
 Limitations of Newtonian Mechanics
• In Cartesian Coordinate system we can write m� = �� , where �� is the force in x-direction and � is the
acceleration.
• Imagine Earth is rotating around the Sun in a circular orbit having a fixed radius. We have to use here the Polar
coordinate system where the coordinates are (r,θ). We can not write m� = �� as a non-zero �� will lead to non-
zero value of � which means that the radius of the circular orbit is not fixed, which is not the case.
• In order to solve this, we have to add some Pseudo force to �� and it nullifies �� . In that way � will be zero which
means that the radius of the circular orbit remains fixed.

• In Newton’s law there is a concept of absolute mass and time.

• When a system is moving with a relativistic speed, the mass is not constant, rather the rest mass energy is an
invariant quantity. This concept is missing in Newtonian Mechanics.
• One fundamental assumption in the theory of relativity is that the speed of light is constant, the same in each
reference frame.
• Time is not an absolute quantity. It is always relative to some other time.

• While dealing with the constrained motion in Newtonian Mechanics, the constraints forces must be known. In
addition to that, the knowledge of the equations of motion is required to derive these constraint forces. An
example to that is the tensile force (constraint force) in a simple pendulum problem. We must equate the tensile
force with the component of mass of the pendulum that balances this tensile force.
Comparison between Lagrangian Mechanics and Newtonian Mechanics
Lagrangian Mechanics
Motion is described by the kinetic and
the potential energies
It is based on the principle of least
action
For constrained motion, the
generalized coordinates are used
instead of constraint forces
Conservation laws can be derived
easily
It is a scalar approach
It is analytical
Newtonian Mechanics
Motion is described by the forces
It is based on the Newton’s laws of
motion
For constrained motion, the constraint
forces should be known
It doesn’t have a systematic method
It is a vectorial approach
It is geometrical