Mechanics

General theoretical mechanics is a unified approach to physics through concepts of motion. Students began with the development of a physics of force and Newton's laws of motion. This treatment was then extended to the ideas of work, energy and the "conservation laws", particularly the conservation of momentum and the conservation of energy. Such a course usually ended with a physics of energy based on the formulation of Joseph Louis Lagrange and William Rowan Hamilton. Along the way, students were introduced to the mathematical treatment of classical problems : central-force motions, the orbits of planetary bodies, oscillations, harmonic motions, the motion of rigid bodies -- where the objects treated are no longer considered as point masses with a location only, but have a shape and an orientation.