Mechanics (18 Lectures):

• Physical Quantities and Units
  • Physical quantities and their units with mass, length, time and temperature as fundamental (base) quantities.
  • The nature of the physical quantities:
  • Scalars and vectors, components of a vector, addition and subtraction of vectors by means of components.
• Kinematics in One Dimension:
  • Definitions in displacement, speed (average and instantaneous), velocity (average and instantaneous), acceleration (average and instantaneous).
  • Displacement-time and velocity-time graphs.
  • Graphical interpretation of velocity and acceleration.
  • Distance travelled as area under the velocity-time graph.
  • Derivation of kinematic equations for constant acceleration and their application to solving problems.
• Projectile Motion:
  • Introduction to projectile motion as a combination of two one-dimensional motions.
  • Derivative of range, maximum height and time of flight.
  • Derivation of the equation for a parabolic path.
  • Application of the equations for projectile motion.
  • Forces & Newton's Laws of Motions;
  • Concepts of force, mass and inertia.
  • Statement of Newton's Laws. Vector nature of Newton's Second Law of Motion (Σ F_x = ma_x , ΣF_y =ma_y ).
• Types of Forces:
  • Static and kinetic frictional forces.
  • Tension.
  • Gravitational forces.
  • Newton's laws of gravitation.
  • Moment of a force.
  • Equilibrium and conditions for equilibrium.
  • Forces on an object immersed in a fluid.
  • Pressure and upthrust.
  • Archimedes' principle and its derivation using a cubical object.
  • Simple battery hydrometer.
  • Viscosity.
  • Statement of Stokes' law and the concept of terminal velocity.
• Dynamics of Uniform Circular Motion:
  • Introduction to the concept of centripetal acceleration and force.
  • Centripetal force and motion around a curve.
  • Satellites in circular orbits.
• Work and Energy:
  • Concepts of work and power.
  • Kinetic and potential energies.
  • Work-Energy Theorem.
  • Definition of conservation of force.
  • The principle of conservation of mechanical energy.
  • Concepts of energy conversion and applications with special references to renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, geothermal and wave.
• Impulse and Momentum:
• Definition of impulse and linear momentum.
• Impulse-Momentum theorem.
• The principle of conservation of linear momentum including the derivation using the impulse-momentum theorem.
• Application to collisions.