Essential Physics Part 1

Throughout the decade of the 1990’s, Professor Firk taught a one-year course of a specialized nature to students who entered Yale College with excellent preparation in Mathematics and the Physical Sciences, and who expressed an interest in Physics or a closely related field. The students were required to take the highest level of introductory Mathematics in parallel with the course. The book covers topics taught in the first semester; they include: 1. MATHEMATICAL PRELIMINARIES 2. KINEMATICS: THE GEOMETRY OF MOTION 3. CLASSICAL AND SPECIAL RELATIVITY 4. NEWTONIAN DYNAMICS 5. INVARIANCE PRINCIPLES AND CONSERVATION LAWS 6. EINSTEINIAN DYNAMICS 7. NEWTONIAN GRAVITATION 8. EINSTEINIAN GRAVITATION: INTRODUCTION TO GENERAL RELATIVITY 9. THE CALCULUS OF VARIATIONS 10. CHAOS 11. WAVE MOTION 12. ORTHOGONAL FUNCTIONS AND FOURIER SERIES APPENDIX : SOLVING ORDINARY DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS