The harmonic oscillator is, by some margin, the most important system in physics. This is partly because its easy and we can solve it. And partly because, under the right circumstances, pretty much anything else can be made to look like a bunch of coupled harmonic oscillators. In this chapter, we look at what happens when a bunch of harmonic oscillators – or springs – are connected to each other.

The essence of dimensional analysis is very simple: if you are asked how hot it is outside, the answer is never “2 o’clock”. You’ve got to make sure that the units, or “dimensions”, agree. In this chapter, we understand what it means for quantities to have dimensions and how getting to grips with this can help solve problems without doing any serious work.

Until now, we’ve only considered the motion of a single particle. If our goal is to understand everything in the universe, that’s a little limiting. In this section, we take a small step forwards: we will describe the dynamics of multiple interacting particles. Among other things, this will highlight the importance of the conservation of momentum and angular momentum.

Classical mechanics starts with Newtons three laws, among them the famous F=ma. But these laws are not quite as transparent as they may seem. In this chapter, we introduce the laws and provide some commentary. We will also learn about Galileos ideas of relativity, a precursor to the much more shocking ideas of Einstein that come later.

The real fun of the Maxwell equations comes when we understand the link between electricity and magnetism. A changing magnetic flux can induce currents to flow. This is Faraday’s law of induction. We start this chapter by understanding this link and end this chapter with one of the great unifying discoveries of physics: that the interplay between electric and magnetic fields is what gives rise to light.

In this chapter, we explore how electric and magnetic fields behave inside materials. The physics can be remarkably complicated and messy but the end result are described by a few, very minor, changes to the Maxwell equations. This allows us to understand various properties of materials, such as conductors.

In this chapter, the Green’s function method is developed that shows how boundary values, initial conditions, and inhomogeneous terms in partial-differential equations act as source terms for response throughout a domain. The Green’s function of a given partial-differential equations is the response from an impulsive point source and satisfies homogeneous versions of whatever boundary conditions the actual response satisfies. The Green’s function propagates a response from source points to receiver points. After developing this method for the scalar wave and diffusion equations and obtaining the Green’s functions of these equations in infinite domains, the focus turns to the Green’s function method for the multitude of vectorial continuum responses governed by equations derived in Part I of the book. In particular, elastodynamics, elastostatics, slow viscous flow, and continuum electromagnetics are analyzed using the Green’s function method. The so-called Green’s tensors for each of these continuum applications in an infinite domain are obtained using the Fourier transform and contour integration.

The Fourier transform pair is derived and various conventions in its definition discussed. It is shown how to obtain forward and inverse Fourier transforms for specific functions, which results in the completeness relation being formally proven. The basic properties of the Fourier transform are derived which include the symmetry properties of the real and imaginary parts, the shifting property, the stretching property, the differentiation property, Parseval’s theorem, the convolution theorem, and the integral-moment relations. The Fourier transform pair is then used to derive the two most important theorems of probability theory: the central-limit theorem and the law of large numbers. The Fourier transform is then used to solve various initial-value problems involving the diffusion and wave equation. The chapter concludes with the way Fourier analysis is key to performing time-series analysis of recorded data, which includes both filtering of the data and topics related to the data being recorded at discrete time intervals.

In this first chapter of Part II of the book on the mathematical methods of continuum physics, the continuum governing equations in Part I are related to three simple partial-differential equations that are analyzed throughout Part II: (1) the scalar wave equation, (2) the scalar diffusion equation, and (3) the scalar Poisson (or Laplace) equation. The nature of the boundary and initial conditions required in specifying well-posed boundary-value problems for each type of partial-differential equation is derived. The three types of equations are then solved using the method of separation of variables. In so doing, the most essential things to remember about the nature of the solution to wave, diffusion, and potential boundary-value problems are presented.

The same volume-averaging procedure used in Chapter 2 shows how to transition from the Maxwell’s equations controlling the electromagnetic fields of fundamental particles in vacuum to the continuum form of Maxwell’s equations describing the electromagnetic fields averaged over large numbers of molecules. The Maxwell stress tensor is derived for the body forces acting on the molecules. The macroscopic form of Maxwell’s equations and the associated electromagnetic fields are obtained when the frame of reference is moving with the center of mass of each collection of molecules. The laws of reversible polarization are obtained by time differentiation of the electromagnetic energy density. The law of electromigration (Ohm’s law) is obtained from a nonequilibrium thermodynamics perspective. Conditions are obtained for the neglect of the material movement in the continuum theory of electromagnetism. Electromagnetic continuity conditions are derived and used on example problems. The continuum form of Newtonian gravity is derived. Expressions for the Coriolis and centrifugal forces are derived when the frame of reference is rotating about an axis.

Nonequilibrium transport equations are derived for two types of diffusive systems: (1) viscous fluids made of a single molecular species that support thermal flux and (2) two-component (solute and solvent) miscible fluids that support solute flux and thermal flux. The general statement of energy conservation for any viscous fluid is derived and used to obtain the statement of entropy conservation for each system type. This identifies the irreversible entropy production of each system, which in turn produces linear transport laws relating the nonequilibrium diffusive flux to the gradients in the intensive parameters. The matrix of transport coefficients in the transport laws is proven to be symmetric (Onsager symmetry) using the continuum governing equations and requires the direction of flow to be reversed to obtain symmetry. Capillary physics is treated using Cahn–Hilliard theory that resolves the gradients in concentration across transition layers separating two immiscible, or partially miscible, fluid. The rules of contact-line movement (imbibition and drainage) in conduits are derived from a more macroscopic perspective where the transition layers are modeled as sharp interfaces.