PHYS 325 :: Physics Illinois :: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Course Schedule
Lectures will take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12:00 - 13:20 Central US in 151 Loomis.
Discussion sessions will take place on Mondays as assigned in the section information.
Homework sets will become available on Thursdays after class, starting in week 1. They are due on the following Thursday before 11:55pm Central and they have to be submitted online via gradescope.
For details on semester dates, registration deadlines, etc. please check the Academic Calendar.
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| Week | Date | Lectures | Homework | Discussions | Text suggestions and supplemental material |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Monday
08/25/2025 |
No discussions | |||
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Tuesday
08/26/2025 |
Course policies L1: Newton's laws |
Taylor Ch. 1 Newton's biography (text) Short biography of Newton by Simon Schaffer (video) |
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Thursday
08/28/2025 |
L2: 1-dimensional particle dynamics | HW 1 out HW 1 solutions |
Taylor Ch. 1 | ||
| 2 |
Monday
09/01/2025 |
Labor Day - No classes | |||
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Tuesday
09/02/2025 |
L3: Position and time dependent forces Simple harmonic oscillator |
Taylor Ch. 2 Galileo's biography (text) |
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Thursday
09/04/2025 |
L4: drag and velocity dependent forces | HW 1 due HW 2 out HW 2 solutions |
Taylor Ch 2 | ||
| 3 |
Monday
09/08/2025 |
FIRST DISCUSSION | Discussion 1 Solution |
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Tuesday
09/08/2025 |
L5: 1D rocket motion 2D particle dynamics |
Taylor Ch 2 Stokes' biography (text) |
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Thursday
09/11/2025 |
L6: 2D particle dynamics |
HW 2 due |
K&K Ch. 4 (Taylor Ch 4 & 8) | ||
| 4 |
Monday
09/15/2025 |
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Tuesday
09/16/2025 |
L7: 2D particle dynamics Conservative forces |
K&K Ch. 10 (Taylor Ch 8) |
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Thursday
09/18/2025 |
L8: Conservative forces Central force motion, angular momentum conservation |
HW 3 due HW 4 out HW4 solutions
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Taylor Ch 8 | ||
| 5 |
Monday
09/22/2025 |
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Tuesday
09/23/2025 |
L9: Gravitational force and potential |
K&K Ch. 10 |
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Thursday
09/25/2025 |
L10: Orbital motion I | HW 5 out HW5 solutions |
K&K Ch. 10 Fun reading: "Equilibrium and stability of thin sphericall shells in Newtonian and relativistic gravity", LeMaitre & Poisson (2019) |
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| 6 |
Monday
09/29/2025 |
HW 4 due | |||
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Tuesday
09/30/2025 |
L11: Orbital motion II |
K&K Ch. 10 Reading: "The pursuit of science", Chandrasekhar (1984) |
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Thursday
10/02/2025 |
L12: Kepler's laws | No new HW |
Black hole cluster, Bamber et al. (2025) | ||
| 7 |
Monday
10/06/2025 |
HW 5 due | |||
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Tuesday
10/07/2025 |
L13: Simple harmonic oscillators | Taylor Ch. 5 (K&K Ch. 11) | |||
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Thursday
10/09/2025 |
Midterm Exam 1 Practice exam 1 [Solutions] (Skip Problem 4) |
No HW due HW 6 out |
Taylor Ch. 5 (K&K Ch. 11) |
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| 8 |
Monday
10/13/2025 |
Reading: Janssen and Renn, "Einstein and the Perihelion motion of Mercury" (2021) | |||
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Tuesday
10/14/2025 |
L14: Damped oscillators | Taylor Ch. 5 (K&K Ch. 11) | |||
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Thursday
10/16/2025 |
L15: Forced vibrations | HW 6 due HW 7 out Solutions |
Taylor Ch. 5 (K&K Ch. 11) |
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| 9 |
Monday
10/20/2025 |
Discussion 7 | |||
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Tuesday
10/21/2025 |
L16: Harmonic driving and resonance | ||||
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Thursday
10/22/2025 |
L17: Periodic driving | HW 7 due HW 8 out |
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| 10 |
Monday
10/27/2025 |
Discussion 8 | |||
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Tuesday
10/28/2025 |
L18: Impulse response function and Greens function | Taylor Chapter 9 (K&K Ch 9) | |||
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Thursday
10/30/2025 |
L19: Fourier transformation | HW 8 due HW 9 out |
Taylor Chapter 9 (K&K Ch 9) | ||
| 11 |
Monday
11/03/2025 |
Discussion 9 | |||
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Tuesday
11/04/2025 |
L20: Non-inertial reference frames | ||||
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Thursday
11/05/2025 |
L21: Dynamics in non-inertial reference frames | HW 9 due No new HW |
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| 12 |
Monday
11/10/2025 |
Discussion 10 | |||
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Tuesday
11/11/2025 |
L22: Coriolis forces | Taylor Ch. 6 | |||
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Thursday
11/13/2025 |
Midterm Exam 2 Practice exam 2 |
No HW due HW 10 out |
Taylor Ch. 6 | ||
| 13 |
Monday
11/17/2025 |
Discussion 11 | |||
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Tuesday
11/18/2025 |
L23: Calculus of variations | Taylor Ch. 7 | |||
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Thursday
11/20/2025 |
L24: Calculus of variations | HW 10 due HW 11 out |
Taylor Ch. 7 | ||
| 11/22/2025 - 11/30/2025 | Fall Break | ||||
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14 |
Monday
12/01/2025 |
Discussion 12 | |||
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Tuesday
12/02/2025 |
L25: Lagrangian mechanics | Taylor Ch. 7 | |||
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Thursday
12/04/2025 |
L26: Lagrangian mechanics | HW 11 due | Taylor Ch. 7 | ||
| 15 |
Monday
12/08/2025 |
Discussion 13 | |||
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Tuesday
12/09/2025 |
L27: Noether's theorem | Taylor Ch. 7 | |||
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Thursday
12/11/2025 |
Reading Day | ||||
| FINALs' week 12/12/2025 - 12/18/2025 |
Final exam: December 16 , from 8 am - 11 am Central US in 3039 Campus Instructional Facility |
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