What do you learn in classical mechanics that is not included in the standard engineering mechanics courses?

Question

In other words, what does a physics major learn regarding mechanics that a mechanical engineering major either doesn't learn or need?

Answer 1

Classical mechanics courses usually cover the laws of mechanics formulated as Lagrangian and Hamiltonian systems. These are useful for the analysis of multi particle systems whch arise in physics (planet mechanics, plasmas, electron beams, etc) but usually fall ooutside the domain of mechanical engineering.

I'm a EE but found classical mechanics to be a useful course set.

Answer 2

It is not obsolete. Classical mechanics works for situations larger than atomic size scales and speeds significantly below the speed of light, which is almost all engineering applications. Mechanical engineers probably have less use for quantum mechanics than most. They rarely deal with anything where classical mechanics doesn't apply. Some engineers do learn it, for things where it's relevant. Materials engineers will learn some quantum mechanics when studying electrical properties of materials, but for mechanical properties classical mechanics works just as well and is far easier to use.

Answer 3

I'm a mechanical engineer and can only think of a couple of categories that classical mechanics covers better than the engineering track.

The first is the very small, such as atomic forces, engineers touch briefly on this but it doesn't help us much in our work as these forces are usually orders of magnitudes smaller than the forces we are really concerned about. For example, how does van der wahls force compared to the torque on a winch required to lift 100 tons of blast funace shell.

The other is the very large. Things on earth are affected by the sun and moon gravitational forces. These are very large forces that are also inconsequential to our work.

Hope that helps.