Physics GRE Discussion Forums

I am taking PGRE in october, but I will be taking classical mechanics only in my final semester and I am struggling on most of the classical mech problems. I can solve some basic problems related to linear motion, circular motion and stuffs but pendulum and stuffs are quite new to me. Can anyone suggest me any kind of special tricks, matra or whatever to ace on it ?

Gooroo

somebody please help

What do you mean by classical mechanics? Lagrangian/Hamiltonian Mech?

Not just L/H mech but also some other especial topics not covered in my freshmen mechanics classes. Like rocket equations and simple harmonic motion problems.

I would get a book (either Taylor or Marion/Thornton) and breeze through a bit (skim chapters, but don't waste time reading things you already know) - you need to at the least be able to do some simple Lagrangian problems with pendulums and such. It's actually not a very hard technique for most of the GRE questions - the mechanics questions aren't generally too bad.

My class used Taylor's book for mechanics and I think the explanations are fairly clear. He also covers rockets and drag, though I can't remember seeing either of those on the GRE from an advanced point of view. Then again, I didn't do great on the PGRE but I think it was more my lack of thermal and quantum problems than anything else...

just remember it is probably better to know most topics very well than to try to learn every possible topic (and not to know each one very well). You can skip the mechanics problems altogether if you can ace the other subject questions.