Present book, entitled ‘Mechanics, Oscillations and Properties of Matter’, has been written for B.Sc. (Physics) students of Semester-I of Banglore University. This book basically deals mechanics and oscillations which in fact forms the foundation of entire physics. This is why this course is taught first of all to the students in any physics syllabus at B.Sc. level.
The course has been divided into four units and in the present book, it has been discussed in nine chapters. Unit I deals with two chapters. First chapter begins with the well-known Newton’s laws of motion and their applications. Next the chapter describes the motion of a body in a resistive medium and the frictional forces. Chapter 2 stars with intertial frames and Galilean relativity, Newtonian ideas of space and time fail at particle speeds comparable to the speed of light. Revolutionary ideas regarding space and time and the fundamental relation E = mc2 of mass-energy equivalence result from the Einstein’s postulates of special theory of relativity. This theory with its consequences is discussed and explained in sufficient details in Chapter 2. Unit II is divided into three chapters: (i) Planetary and satellite motion, (ii) Work and energy and (iii) Surface tension. Unit III deals with system of particles and moment of inertia in two chapters. Finally oscillations (simple harmonic, damped, forced and coupled) and elasticity are discussed in last two chapters.
In order to grasp the basic concepts of physics and to understand the complicacy of subject matter, it is necessary that the students have sufficient practice to solve the related problems. To stress this point, several Indian Universities have made compulsory to ask numerical problems in the examination paper. This is why we have given a sufficient number of selected informative and modern solved problems in few groups at different places inside a chapter and each group of problems has been followed by an exercise (set of unsolved problems).
In view of the latest pattern of university examination papers, theoretical questions have been systematically arranged at the end of each chapter of the book in the following three heads: (1) Long Answer Questions, (2) Short Answer Questions and (3) Objective Type Questions.
Contents :
Unit I
1. Motion and Friction
2. Frame of Reference and Relativity
Unit II
3. Planetary and Satellite Motion
4. Work and Energy
5. Surface Tension
Unit III
6. System of Particles
7. Moment of Inertia
Unit IV
8. Oscillations
9. Elasticity
