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MIT 8.03 Vibrations and Waves (Walter Lewin)

By Lectures by Walter Lewin. They will make you ♥ Physics.

Course audio
Course audio: English
Level
Advanced
Length
24 lessons · 30 hours

What you'll be able to do

  • Solve the equations of damped and driven oscillators
  • Find normal modes of coupled oscillators
  • Explain interference, diffraction and polarisation of waves

About this course

Walter Lewin's complete MIT 8.03 course on vibrations and waves, 23 lectures of about 75 minutes plus a short introduction, uploaded on his own channel. It starts with periodic phenomena, the simple harmonic oscillator, complex notation and the physical pendulum, then beats, damped and driven oscillations, resonance, coupled oscillators and normal modes, and goes on to travelling and standing waves, sound, electromagnetic waves, polarisation, interference and diffraction, ending with rainbows, coronae and glories and a farewell lecture on his early years at MIT. Famous for live demonstrations; best after a first course in mechanics and calculus.

Before you start: Calculus and first-year mechanics (8.01)

Syllabus

24 lessons · 30:02:45 in total

  1. 18.03 Introduction - Walter Lewin7:17
  2. 28.03 - Lect 1 - Periodic Phenomena, SHO, Complex Notation, Physical Pendulum1:17:56
  3. 38.03 - Lect 2 - Beats, Damped Free Ocillations, Quality Q1:20:52
  4. 48.03 - Lect 3 - Driven Oscillations With Damping, Steady State Solutions, Resonance1:09:05
  5. 58.03 - Lect 4 - Forced Oscillations, Power, Resonance, Transient Solutions1:17:22
  6. 68.03 - Lect 5 - Coupled Oscillators, Resonance Frequencies, Superposition of Modes1:18:19
  7. 78.03 - Lect 6 - Coupled Oscillators, Steady State & Transient Solutions, Intial Conditions1:20:24
  8. 88.03 - Lect 7 - Many Coupled Oscillators, Wave Equation, Transverse Traveling Waves1:18:31
  9. 98.03 - Lect 8 - Traveling Waves, Standing Waves, Longitudinal Waves, Energy in Waves1:16:28
  10. 108.03 - Lect 9 - Sound Cavities, Resonance Frequencies, Musical Instruments1:20:25
  11. 118.03 - Lect 10 - First Exam Review, Breaking Wine Glass with Sound1:17:20
  12. 128.03 - Lect 11 - Fourier Analysis, Time Evolution of Pulses on Strings1:14:22
  13. 138.03 - Lect 12 - Dispersion, Phase Velocity, Group Velocity1:18:42
  14. 148.03 - Lect 13 - Electromagnetic Waves, Solutions to Maxwell's Equations, Polarization1:15:11
  15. 158.03 - Lect 14 - Accelerated Charges, Poynting Vector, Power, Rayleigh Scattering1:17:03
  16. 168.03 - Lect 15 - Doppler Effect, Big Bang Cosmology, Neutron Stars & Black Holes1:17:32
  17. 178.03 - Lect 16 - Standing EM Waves, Reflection, Transmission Lines, Rad. Pressure1:15:51
  18. 188.03 - Lect 17 - Wave Guides, Resonance Cavities, Great Sound Demo in Closed Box1:16:48
  19. 198.03 - Lect 18 - Index of Refraction, Reflection, Fresnel Equations, Brewster Angle1:21:33
  20. 208.03 - Lect 19 - Second Exam Review1:20:11
  21. 218.03 - Lect 20 - Interference, Huygen's Principle, Thin Films, Double Slit Demo1:16:43
  22. 228.03 - Lect 21 - Diffraction, Gratings, Spectral & Angular Resolution, Human Eye1:23:38
  23. 238.03 - Lect 22 - Rainbows, Coronae, Glories, Glass Bow, Great Demos1:23:09
  24. 248.03 - Lect 23 - Farewell Special, My Early Years at MIT, Balloon Astrophysics1:18:03

Related courses

Videos by Lectures by Walter Lewin. They will make you ♥ Physics., played from their official YouTube channel. Subscribe on YouTube

Official upload by the teacher or institution on their own channel, shown with YouTube's embedded player.

Lessons listed from the official YouTube playlist. Full playlist on YouTube

Lessons last checked Oct 2026. Course summary and lesson structure by Sabaq.

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