MIT Professor of Physics Walter Lewin

Walter H. G. Lewin is currently a professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He earned his Ph.D. degree in nuclear physics in 1965 at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. Walter Lewin came to MIT in January 1966 as a post-doctoral associate, and became an assistant professor later that year. He joined an x-ray astronomy group at MIT and conducted all-sky balloon surveys with George W. Clark. Through the late seventies, there were about twenty successful balloon flights. These balloon surveys led to the discovery of five new x-ray sources, which doubled the number known at the time. Furthermore, some of these x-ray sources were found to be varying, and some were x-ray flares. The rockets used by other researchers could not have discovered that the x-ray sources varied because they were only in the air for a few minutes, whereas the balloons could be in the air for many hours. The surveys also resulted in the discovery of GX 1+4, which was the first slowly rotating X-ray pulsar found. Walter Lewin received the "2003 Everett Moore Baker Memorial Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching" award.

Email: lewin@mit.edu

Phone: (617) 253-4282

8.01 Physics I: Classical Mechanics

Course Highlights

This course features lecture notes, problem sets with solutions, exams with solutions, links to related resources, and a complete set of videotaped lectures. The 35 video lectures by Professor Lewin, were recorded on the MIT campus during the Fall of 1999. Prof. Lewin is well-known at MIT and beyond for his dynamic and engaging lecture style.

Course Description

8.01 is a first-semester freshman physics class in Newtonian Mechanics, Fluid Mechanics, and Kinetic Gas Theory. In addition to the basic concepts of Newtonian Mechanics, Fluid Mechanics, and Kinetic Gas Theory, a variety of interesting topics are covered in this course: Binary Stars, Neutron Stars, Black Holes, Resonance Phenomena, Musical Instruments, Stellar Collapse, Supernovae, Astronomical observations from very high flying balloons (lecture 35), and you will be allowed a peek into the intriguing Quantum World.

Physics 8.01: Classical Mechanics Video Lectures:

0 Course Introduction
1 Powers of Ten - Units - Dimensions - Measurements - Uncertainties - Dimensional Analysis - Scaling Arguments
2 1D Kinematics - Speed - Velocity - Acceleration
3 Vectors - Dot Products - Cross Products - 3D Kinematics
4 3D Kinematics - Free Falling Reference Frames
5 Circular Motion - Centrifuges Moving - Reference Frames - Perceived Gravity
6 Newton's Laws
7 Weight - Perceived Gravity - Weightlessness Free Fall - Zero Gravity in Orbit (misnomer)
8 Friction
9 Exam Review
10 Hooke's Law - Springs - Simple Harmonic Motion - Pendulum - Small Angle Approximation
11 Work - Kinetic Energy - Potential Energy - Conservative Forces - Conservation of Mechanical Energy - Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation
12 Non-Conservative Forces - Resistive Forces - Air Drag - Terminal Velocity
13 Potential Energy - Energy Considerations to Derive Simple Harmonic Motion
14 Escape Velocities - Bound and Unbound Orbits - Circular Orbits - Various Forms of Energy - Power
15 Momentum - Conservation of Momentum - Center of Mass
16 Collisions - Elastic and Inelastic - Center of Mass Frame of Reference
17 Impulse - Rockets
18 Exam Review
19 Rotating Rigid Bodies - Moment of Inertia - Parallel Axis and Perpendicular Axis Theorem - Rotational Kinetic Energy - Fly Wheels - Neutron Stars - Pulsars
20 Angular Momentum - Torques - Conservation of Angular Momentum - Spinning Neutron Stars - Stellar Collapse
21 Torques - Oscillating Bodies - Hoops
22 Kepler's Laws - Elliptical Orbits - Satellites - Change of Orbits - Ham Sandwich
23 Doppler Effect - Binary Stars - Neutron Stars and Black Holes
24 Rolling Motion - Gyroscopes - VERY NON-INTUITIVE
25 Static Equilibrium - Stability - Rope Walker
26 Elasticity - Young's Modulus
27 Fluid Mechanics - Pascal's Principle - Hydrostatics - Atmospheric Pressure - Over Pressure in Lungs and Tires
28 Hydrostatics - Archimedes' Principle - Fluid Dynamics - What Makes Your Boat Float? - Bernoulli's Equation
29 Exam Review
30 Simple Harmonic Oscillations - Energy Considerations - Torsional Pendulum
31 Forced Oscillations - Normal Modes - Resonance - Natural Frequencies - Musical Instruments
32 Heat - Thermal Expansion
33 Kinetic Gas Theory - Ideal Gas Law - Isothermal Atmosphere - Phase Diagrams - Phase Transitions
34 The Wonderful Quantum World - Breakdown of Classical Mechanics
35 Farewell Special - High-energy Astrophysics

Lecture Notes
Assignments
Exams
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