UNALClassical Mechanics
Classical Mechanics
An interactive laboratory for the first part of a university mechanics course: from the position of a particle on a line to Newton’s laws with friction. Each topic combines the theory (after Resnick), simulations you can play and scrub, and a solver that takes the data of any statement, in the style of Serway’s problems, picks the right equation of the invariant, isolates the unknown and shows every step, with the notation of the course notes.
Kinematics: describing motion
How things move: position, velocity and acceleration in a line, in the plane and on a circle.
Motion in one dimension
Position, displacement, velocity and acceleration: average and instantaneous values, derivatives of x(t) and the meaning of each graph.
Uniform motion
Constant velocity: the straight line x(t), average speed over several stretches, encounters and races solved by equations and graphically.
Uniformly accelerated motion
The invariant of constant acceleration and its variants (MUA and MUR), chases between two bodies and motion by stretches.
Free fall
A body released from rest: the variant V = gt, V² = 2gH, H = gt²/2 and the time, speed and height of the fall.
Vertical throws
Throws upward and downward, from the ground or from a height: maximum height, time of flight, return and impact.
Projectile motion
Uniform motion in x plus a vertical throw in y: the parabola, maximum height, range, flight time, hitting a target.
Circular motion
Angular kinematics (MCU and MCUA), period, frequency, tangential and centripetal acceleration.
Dynamics: the causes of motion
Why things move: forces, free-body diagrams, Newton’s laws and friction.
Newton's laws
Free-body diagrams and ΣF = ma: inclines, pulleys, Atwood machine, blocks in contact, elevators, knots and circular dynamics.
Friction
Static and kinetic friction: will it move?, critical angle, Coulomb tribometer, connected bodies, braking and curves.
How the laboratory works
Data and unknowns
Type the values the statement gives, with their units, and leave empty what it asks for. Each empty field is an unknown; mark with ★ the ones the problem asks for.
The invariant and the variant
The general equations of the topic (the invariant) are always visible; the conditions of the statement (starts from rest, reaches the ground, about to slide…) turn them into the variant of the course.
Step by step
The solver explains why it chooses each equation, isolates the unknown symbolically, substitutes the numbers with units and boxes the result. Quadratics keep both roots and discard those that make no physical sense.
Simulation and graphs
The motion determined by the data is animated, and its graphs follow it: drag over a graph to move through time. Notable events (top, ground, stop) are computed with their own derivation.
Free-body diagrams
In dynamics every body is drawn with its forces, components and acceleration, and the results are checked body by body with ΣF = m a.
Sources
Theory after R. Resnick, D. Halliday and K. S. Krane, Física, vol. 1 (chapters 2, 4, 5 and 6). Problems and questions after R. A. Serway and J. W. Jewett, Física para ciencias e ingeniería, vol. 1 (chapters 2 to 6), and the course notes and workshops on motion in one dimension, motion in the plane and Newton’s laws, whose notation (the invariant, the variants, the D.C.L.) the whole project follows.