An introduction to foundations of Classical Mechanics and Classical Field Theory

Lecture Notes

• Classical Mechanics
  • Overview of foundations of classical mechanics
  • Langrangian, Hamiltonian formulation, Noether’s theorem, Poisson brackets and more
• Classical Field Theory
  • Relativity: invariance of the interval, Lorentz transformations etc.
  • Classical field theory: scalar and vector fields, interactions
  • Electrodynamics, covariant Maxwell’s equations, EM waves

Texts

• Goldstein, Poole, and Safko, Classical Mechanics
  • One of the standards, for good reason; very solid and thorough coverage.
• Landau and Lifshitz, Mechanics (Vols. 1 and 2)
  • An older and technical book. A very elegant coverage of classical mechanics. More appropriate at a slightly more advanced level.
• D. J. Griffiths, Intoduction to Electrodynamics