Most of the phenomena in the world around you are, at the fundamental level, based on physics, and much of physics is based on mechanics. Mechanics begins by quantifying motion, and then explaining it in terms of forces, energy and momentum. This allows us to analyse the operation of many familiar phenomena around us, but also the mechanics of planets, stars and galaxies.
Offered By


Mechanics: Motion, Forces, Energy and Gravity, from Particles to Planets
UNSW Sydney (The University of New South Wales)About this Course
Offered by

UNSW Sydney (The University of New South Wales)
UNSW Sydney, based in Sydney Australia, was established in 1949 and is one of Australia’s leading research and teaching universities with more than 50,000 students from over 120 countries. UNSW Sydney aspires to provide students with an outstanding educational experience, which both reflects our strong traditions of excellence, innovation and social justice, and builds on our strengths in scientific, technological and professional disciplines.
Syllabus - What you will learn from this course
Introduction and Basic Tools
This introductory section covers some basic tools you will need to solve some of the physics problems we will encounter later.
Velocity and Acceleration
Here we introduce kinematics, in which we describe and quantify movement of objects through space over time. Motion is so important to mechanics (and most of physics) that we'll spend a few weeks establishing the tools and techniques we'll need. We'll leave explaining motion to the later weeks, starting with Newton's laws in week 4. Here we study the simplest case: motion in a straight line.
Motion in Two Dimensions
Here we look at kinematics in two-dimensions – specifically, projectiles and objects in circular motion.
Newton's Laws of Motion
After describing and quantifying motion (weeks 2 and 3), we now start explaining it with Newton's three laws of motion. Knowledge of Newton's laws and the ability to apply them to various situations will allow us to explain much of the motion we observe in the world around us. They are also very important for analysing things (like bridges) that don't move much (a subject called Statics that's important in some Engineering programs). Because Newton's laws are so important, week 4 has five lessons, as well as slightly longer quizzes than the previous chapters.
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- 5 stars79.39%
- 4 stars14.37%
- 3 stars3.32%
- 2 stars0.96%
- 1 star1.93%
TOP REVIEWS FROM MECHANICS: MOTION, FORCES, ENERGY AND GRAVITY, FROM PARTICLES TO PLANETS
Excellent course and also well-designed syllabus. Prof. Joe Wolfe's way of demonstration for each and every concepts are awesome.
such a nice course for those students who want to improve their mechanics so it is a good platform.
Great examples and material. Some of the links may not work or are not targeted at the beginner student.
The problems were challenging but it is doable with a lot of patience and hard work. You can do it guys!
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