Prerequisites: MATH 205A, MATH 205B, MATH 205C; or PHYS 205; or consent of instructor
Description: Hamilton’s principle of least action. Variational methods and Lagrange’s equations. Hamilton’s equations. Introduction to symplectic geometry and its applications to classical mechanics. Poisson brackets. Conserved quantities and Noether’s theorem. Examples of Hamiltonian and dissipative dynamical systems. Introduction to classical chaos.