Newtonian Mechanics

Overview

Classical mechanics was largely first developed and formalized by Isaac Newton. It represented a major paradigm shift in Physics from that developed by Aristotle. Newton developed the calculus in order to describe his theory.

Newtons Laws of Motion

• Newton's First and Second Law
  
  Newtons force law reads:
  {% F = m \times \vec{a} %}
  where we note that acceleration is the second derivative of position
  {% F = m \times \frac{d^2 \vec{r} }{dt ^2} %}
• Newton's Third Law
  
  Two bodies that exert a force on each other, will exert forces or equal size but opposite direction.

Topics

• Momentum
  • Linear Momentum
  • Angular Momentum
• Energy - a central concept in physics, the conservation of energy dictates the time evolution of a classical system.
• Algorithm - a simple implementation of the time evolution of a classical system subject to Newtons laws using linear algebra.