# Classical Physics

Prof. V. Balakrishnan's lecture series on classical physics, followed here as a set of
worked lecture notes rather than a bare syllabus. Each lecture reconstructs the
argument from the [video series](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5E4E56893588CBA8),
with the phase-space pictures made explicit and interactive wherever the lecture itself
asks you to "draw" or "complete" one.

## Lectures

- [Lecture 1 — Orders of Magnitude and the Regimes of Physics](lec01_introduction.md)
- [Lecture 2 — Degrees of Freedom, Newton's Equations, and Phase Space](lec02_degrees_of_freedom.md)
- [Lecture 3–4 — Multiple Critical Points, Scaling Arguments, and the Road to Linear Systems](lec03_dynamics.md)
- [Lecture 5–6 — Autonomous Dynamical Systems](lec05_autonomous_dynamics.md)
- [Lecture 7 — The Lagrangian Formalism: Action, Euler–Lagrange Equations, and the Pendulum](lec07_lagrangian.md)
- [Lecture 8–9 — Classical Electromagnetism: Potentials, Gauge Invariance, and the Charged-Particle Lagrangian](lec08_electromagnetism.md)
- [Lecture 10–12 — Hamiltonian Dynamics: Legendre Transforms, Poisson Brackets, and Integrability](lec10_hamiltonian_dynamics.md)
- [Lecture 13–14 — Dynamical Symmetry: Noether's Theorem, the Symplectic Group, and the Kepler Problem](lec13_dynamical_symmetry.md)
- [Lecture 20–21 — Foundations of Statistical Mechanics: Equal A Priori Probabilities and the Law of Large Numbers](lec20_statistical_mechanics.md)
  *(skips ahead in the syllabus — see below)*
- [Lecture 22–23 — The Microcanonical Ensemble and the Structure of Thermodynamics](lec22_microcanonical_ensemble.md)
- [Lecture 24–25 — The Canonical Ensemble and the Classical Ideal Gas](lec24_canonical_ensemble.md)
- [Lecture 28–30 — Phase Transitions, Critical Phenomena, and Landau Theory](lec28_phase_transitions.md)
  *(skips ahead in the syllabus — see below)*
- [Lecture 35–38 — Special Relativity: Noether's Theorem, Four-Vectors, and the Lorentz Group](lec35_special_relativity.md)
  *(the final lecture of the course)*

## Upcoming Topics

Balakrishnan's course runs from mechanics through statistical mechanics before
reaching phase transitions and finally special relativity; the following isn't
transcribed here yet:

- Classical field theory
- Oscillations and normal modes
- Lecture 15–19 (between dynamical symmetry and statistical mechanics — the syllabus
  skips ahead at Lecture 20)
- Further probability distributions (Lec-26–27, beyond the binomial/Poisson/Gaussian
  covered in [Lecture 20–21](lec20_statistical_mechanics.md))
- Critical phenomena and the group theory of Noether's theorem (Lec-31–34, between
  Lecture 28–30 and Lecture 35–38)

## Resources

- [YouTube Playlist](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5E4E56893588CBA8)