|
|
|
Classical Mechanics |
|
The part of physics that was developed before and therefore does not include either quantum theory or the theory of relativity is called classical mechanics. The approach to the dynamics, which is generally known as classical mechanics, was developed and successfully tested in the 17th and 18th centuries. In our centuries, new theories, special and general theories and the quantum theory have indicated certain realms far from our ordinary experiences where the classical mechanics fails to give predictions that agree with experiment, but these new theories reduce to classical mechanics in the limits of ordinary objects. Without reference to special and general theories or to the quantum theory, we can build great skyscrapers and study the properties of their construction materials; build airplane that can carry hundreds of people and fly halfway around the world; and send space probes on complex missions to comets, the planets and beyond. This is the scope of classical mechanics. The central problem of classical mechanics is: (i) We are given a body whose characteristics (mass, volume, electric charge etc.) are known. (ii) We place this body at a known initial location and with known initial velocity, in an environment of which we have a complex description. (iii) What is the subsequent motion of body? This problem of classical mechanics was solved by Issac Newton when he put forward his laws of motion and formulated his law of universal gravitation. |
|
|
Applets |
|
Waqas Ahmed -- All rights reserved