A scientific appreciation of the world around us requires classical physics. The familiar, however, looks somehow more complex than what is learned at school. That a distilled set of equations will allow us an understanding seems somewhat doubtful. During 2011–2014, in my lectures on “Classical physics” a four-month long semester course to first-year undergraduates, I tried to bring some of these observations into the classroom. The encouragement received from the students provided me enthusiasm to write these notes. I have used a large number of sources - several fascinating books and articles published in journals. Hence, this work does not claim originality. Here a compact account is presented, which is understandable in one semester. This has been experimentally verified, so to say!

The goal is to dig deeper into the mechanics of single particle to that of many particles to kinetic theory, and, to proceed from oscillations to waves to sound, eventually we discuss the elementary concepts of thermodynamics. Problem-solving is an integral part of the course; this was done by student-teams, each consisting of five to six students. Cooperation is a lesson that is learnt best, early in life.

What is classical physics?

Is it physics where the Planck's constant is zero? That does not sound very meaningful as we are given a world or a universe which is labelled by a value of the Planck's constant. It would be more meaningful to say that “Classical Physics” describes phenomena where we might do away with the Planck's constant. For instance, planetary motion may be understood without worrying about quantum mechanics. However, it is useful and important that we pursue this study with an awareness of quantum theory. Many aspects of quantum mechanics are intricately linked and even dependent on the structure of classical mechanics. The meaning of momentum operator in quantum mechanics is understood with the help of the usual notion of momentum in classical mechanics. On the other hand, there are phenomena described classically where the concept of a quantum is employed. For instance, in our dealing with turbulence of fluids or plasma the interaction between a particle or a wave with another wave is described using the quanta called plasmons - a quantum of a collective excitation.