Introduction to Mechanics: Kinematics and Dynamics
Learn about kinematics and dynamics in this calculus-based physics course.
Course Information
Certificate Track
Learn for Free
About this Course
Mechanics is the study of the physics of motion and how it relates to applied forces. It lays the foundation of understanding the world around us through the how and why of motion.
This online physics course is the first in the xSeries that covers calculus-based mechanics. In this course, you will learn kinematics – the geometric description of motion – in the context of one-dimensional, multi-dimensional, and circular motion. It also reviews Newton’s laws of motion and examines their real-world applications.
The xSeries in Introduction to Mechanics is a four-part series of online courses that is based on the MIT subject 8.01: Physics I, required of all MIT undergraduates.
- Mechanics: Kinematics and Dynamics
- Mechanics: Momentum and Energy
- Mechanics: Rotational Dynamics
- Mechanics: Simple Harmonic Motion and Non-Inertial Reference Frames
All four courses will be launching in Fall 2024.
*The course image is a picture of an MIT building with the name Newton prominently displayed.
What you'll learn
- Kinematics
- Newton’s Laws
- Circular Motion
- Resistive Forces. Constraints, and Massive Ropes
Prerequisites
High school physics
- Calculus 1A: Differentiation
- Calculus 1B: Integration
- Calculus 1C: Coordinate Systems & Infinite Series
Meet your instructors
Krishna Rajagopal
William A. M. Burden Professor of Physics
After growing up in Toronto, Professor Rajagopal did his undergraduate work at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada. He obtained his doctorate at Princeton University in 1993 and spent three years at Harvard as a Junior Fellow. He then spent one year at Caltech before coming to MIT in 1997. He became the Associate Head of the Department of Physics in 2009, served as the Chair of the MIT faculty from 2015 to 2017 and as MIT’s Dean for Digital Learning from 2017 to 2021.
Professor Rajagopal has also described the properties of the superfluid, color superconducting, quark matter that may lie at the centers of neutron stars, providing a clear understanding of the properties of matter at extraordinarily high densities. His work shows that cold quark matter at the highest densities is the QCD analogue of a superconductor but that if you could look at it using ordinary light it would look like a transparent insulator.
