Employing the Mathcad program within the course of Theoretical Mechanics

• Main Author: Kurilin Alexander V.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: EDP Sciences 2016-01-01
• Series: SHS Web of Conferences
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/20162902025

The author shares his experience in using the «Mathcad» software for conducting classes on «Theoretical Mechanics» in the University course. The program «Mathcad» combines a simple user interface and powerful mathematical tools which can be employed for different mechanical problems. It gives invaluable help in evaluating analytically and numerically many difficult integrals, in solving differential equations, in picturing graphics and can also simulate different mechanical phenomena with the computer. This allows significantly to expand the range of topics that can be considered in the standard University course of «Theoretical Mechanics» and gives students an opportunity to concentrate on practical problems, avoiding unnecessary routine of mathematical calculations. As an example the author considers one famous problem of the Lagrange analytical mechanics associated with the body motion in the field of gravity in the presence of stationary holonomic constraints.