2025 (Current Year) Faculty Courses Liberal arts and basic science courses Basic science and technology courses
Fundamentals of Mechanics 1 H
- Academic unit or major
- Basic science and technology courses
- Instructor(s)
- Daiki Nishiguchi
- Class Format
- Lecture (Face-to-face)
- Media-enhanced courses
- -
- Day of week/Period
(Classrooms) - 3-4 Tue
- Class
- H
- Course Code
- LAS.P101
- Number of credits
- 100
- Course offered
- 2025
- Offered quarter
- 1Q
- Syllabus updated
- Mar 19, 2025
- Language
- Japanese
Syllabus
Course overview and goals
The course teaches the fundamentals of particle motion starting with the equations that describe the motion of an object.
Mechanics is important for understanding nature, and is essential for the study of science, engineering, life sciences, and other specialized courses. Students will learn the physical laws of motion and their mathematical description. This will allow them to understand particle mechanics as well as find solutions to most general problems in mechanics.
Course description and aims
By completing this course, students will be able to:
1) Correctly understand the concepts of velocity, acceleration, force, momentum, angular momentum, torque, work, energy, etc., and mathematically describe them.
2) Correctly understand the laws of motion; the laws of conservation of momentum, angular momentum, and energy that are derived from the laws of motion; and solve actual physical problems by applying these laws.
3) Find mathematical solutions to problems in mechanics, expressed by the appropriate equations, and explain the physical meaning of said solutions.
Keywords
position, velocity, acceleration, momentum, force, laws of motion, law of conservation of momentum, free fall, simple harmonic motion, parabolic motion, work, kinetic energy, potential energy, law of conservation of energy, central force, angular momentum, torque, law of conservation of angular momentum, universal gravitation, Kepler’s laws
Competencies
- Specialist skills
- Intercultural skills
- Communication skills
- Critical thinking skills
- Practical and/or problem-solving skills
Class flow
Two-thirds of each class is devoted to fundamentals and the rest to advanced content or application. To allow students to get a good grasp of the course contents and practice problem solving skills, problems related to the contents of this course are provided in Exercises in Physics I.
Course schedule/Objectives
| Course schedule | Objectives | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | Description of motion (position, velocity, acceleration) | Explain the meanings of Newton's three laws. Explain the description of motion by using differential equations. |
| Class 2 | Integrals of the equation of motion 1 (momentum conservation, energy conservation) | Derive the laws of momentum conservation and energy conservation by integrating the equation of motion |
| Class 3 | Oscillations (simple harmonic oscillation, damped oscillation, forced oscillation) | Write down the equations of motion for damped oscillations and forced oscillations, and derive the solutioins. |
| Class 4 | Integrals of the equation of motion 2 (angular momentum conservation) | Explain the concepts of angular momentum and torque, and express them using the vector product. |
| Class 5 | Motion of a point mass subjected to a central force (planetary motion, Kepler’s laws) 1 | Write down the equation of motion of a poont mass subjected to a central force in polar coordinates. Explain why its angular momentum is conserved. |
| Class 6 | Motion of a point mass subjected to a central force (planetary motion, Kepler’s laws) 2 | Derive Kepler's laws of planetary motion. |
| Class 7 | Description of motion in non-inertial frames | Derive the centrifugal force and Coriolis force. |
Study advice (preparation and review)
To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.
Textbook(s)
Yuzi Soejima, Tadao Sugiyama, RIKIGAKU (Mechanics). Kodansha; ISBN-13: 978-4061572010 (in Japanese)
Reference books, course materials, etc.
Presentation slides used during the lectures will be shared through web systems.
Evaluation methods and criteria
Evaluated by final exam.
Related courses
- LAS.P105 ： Exercises in Physics I
Prerequisites
No prerequisites.