2025 (Current Year) Faculty Courses Liberal arts and basic science courses Basic science and technology courses
Fundamentals of Mechanics 1 N
- Academic unit or major
- Basic science and technology courses
- Instructor(s)
- Toshi-Aki Shibata
- Class Format
- Lecture (Face-to-face)
- Media-enhanced courses
- -
- Day of week/Period
(Classrooms) - 3-4 Fri
- Class
- N
- 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. Therefore, it is recommended to take the course of Exercises in Physics I as well.
This course teaches mechanics which was established by Newton et al. The subject is basically the same as is described in physics textbooks of high school, but the course is organized so that students can understand mechanics systematically using mathematical methods such as differentiation, integration, differential equations, vectors and linear algebra. Mechanics and mathematical methods used for it are both explained in the course. It is important to have a physics textbook of high school always at hand and investigate the contents from the viewpoint of a university student throughout the course.
Course schedule/Objectives
| Course schedule | Objectives | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | Description of motion (position, velocity, acceleration) | Be able to explain position, velocity, and acceleration using vectors. |
| Class 2 | Newton’s three laws of motion (law of inertia, equation of motion, law of action and reaction) | Be able to explain Newton’s three laws of motion and describe motion using the equations of motion. |
| Class 3 | Linear motion (free fall, simple harmonic motion, simple pendulum) | Be able to explain typical linear motions such as free fall and simple harmonic motion. |
| Class 4 | Motion in a plane (parabolic motion, damped harmonic oscillation, and driven harmonic oscillation) | Be able to explain damped harmonic oscillation and driven harmonic oscillation in addition to planar motion such as parabolic motion. |
| Class 5 | Work and energy (kinetic energy, conservative force and potential energy), law of conservation of energy | Be able to explain the concepts of work, kinetic energy, potential energy, and the law of conservation of energy. |
| Class 6 | Newton's law of universal gravitation and planetary motion (Kepler’s laws)1 | Be able to explain the universal gravitation and Kepler’s laws. |
| Class 7 | Newton's law of universal gravitation and planetary motion (Kepler’s laws)2. The opportunity for students to explain mechanics by oral presentations is also provided. | Be able to explain the motion of a particle under universal gravitation and Kepler’s laws of planetary motion. |
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)
Not specified. The textbooks are introduced during the course whenever necessary.
Reference books, course materials, etc.
MIT OpenCourseWare(OCW) 8.01SC 'Classical mechanics' is one of the references.
Evaluation methods and criteria
Grades are evaluated by examination and reports. They are subject to change due to circumstances.
Related courses
- LAS.P105 ： Exercises in Physics I
Prerequisites
No prerequisites.
Other
・As is written above, this course consists of 100 minutes of lecture and about 200 minutes of review and so on by students themselves each week. Students are expected to design by themselves how they study in this course and proceed according to their plans.
・Students are expected to have a physics textbook of high school always at hand. One of the important goals of the students is to investigate the contents of physics textbooks of high school from the viewpoint of a university student and become able to explain all the contents before they graduate from university.