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Description of the theory

The following introduces the basic concepts of classical mechanics. For simplicity, it uses a point particle, which is an object with negligible size. The motion of a point particle is characterized by a small number of parameters: its position, mass, and the forces applied to it. Each of these parameters is discussed in turn.

In reality, the kind of objects which classical mechanics can describe always have a non-zero size. True point particles, such as the electron, are normally better described by quantum mechanics. Objects with non-zero size have more complicated behaviour than hypothetical point particles, because of the additional degrees of freedom - for example, a baseball can spin while it is moving. However, the results for point particles can be used to study such objects by treating them as composite objects, made up of a large number of interacting point particles. The center of mass of a composite object behaves like a point particle.