Classical And Relativistic Mechanics

This book provides a calculus-based perspective on classical mechanics and the theory of relativity. Unlike most conventional textbooks, the discussion on theory is pared down to a minimum in favor of detailed, guided solutions of problems illustrating salient points, subtleties and principles. By working through the 900 carefully selected problems, the serious learner will hence be stimulated, challenged and enlightened. Great emphasis is placed on the pedagogical value of solving problems in a number of ways, on the careful and detailed analysis of problems, on dimensional considerations, and on basic principles underlying every topic treated.The book is aimed at first-year undergraduate students in physics and engineering. Advanced Placement students in high schools will also find this book rewarding and challenging. Instructors too will be able to recharge their batteries and refresh their reservoir of problems for recitation classes, or delve into it for their own amusement and edification.

The text covers the entire domain of basic classical mechanics and relativity theory (special and general) and has been revised mainly for the purpose of adding exercises without worked solutions that were missing in the first edition. To retain the format of a readable, yet advanced introductory text that can serve as the companion text for a course in mechanics, the more than 100 new exercises on diverse topics are of moderate range; answers are given and occasionally hints are provided. As before, the text aims to cover the entire spectrum of theoretical mechanics from Newton to Einstein. The reader can observe how in the course of time, deeper and deeper insights were achieved with the development of the basic equations of Newton to those of Euler and Lagrange, and to the geodesic equations of space-time and Einstein's relativity. To include diverse problems, a small section on this topic has been added.

This book presents classical relativistic mechanics and electrodynamics in the Feynman-Stueckelberg event-oriented framework formalized by Horwitz and Piron. The full apparatus of classical analytical mechanics is generalized to relativistic form by replacing Galilean covariance with manifest Lorentz covariance and introducing a coordinate-independent parameter τ to play the role of Newton's universal and monotonically advancing time. Fundamental physics is described by the τ-evolution of a system point through an unconstrained 8D phase space, with mass a dynamical quantity conserved under particular interactions. Classical gauge invariance leads to an electrodynamics derived from five τ-dependent potentials described by 5D pre-Maxwell field equations. Events trace out worldlines as τ advances monotonically, inducing pre-Maxwell fields by their motions, and moving under the influence of these fields. The dynamics are governed canonically by a scalar Hamiltonian that generates evolution of a 4D block universe defined at τ to an infinitesimally close 4D block universe defined at τ+dτ. This electrodynamics, and its extension to curved space and non-Abelian gauge symmetry, is well-posed and integrable, providing a clear resolution to grandfather paradoxes. Examples include classical Coulomb scattering, electrostatics, plane waves, radiation from a simple antenna, classical pair production, classical CPT, and dynamical solutions in weak field gravitation. This classical framework will be of interest to workers in quantum theory and general relativity, as well as those interested in the classical foundations of gauge theory.

Intended for advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students, this text is based on the highly successful course given by Walter Greiner at the University of Frankfurt, Germany. The two volumes on classical mechanics provide not only a complete survey of the topic but also an enormous number of worked examples and problems to show students clearly how to apply the abstract principles to realistic problems.

In this book Drs J X Zheng-Johansson and Per-Ivar Johansson present a remarkable unification scheme. The scheme is based on an analysis of the overall experimental observations available up to today, and an observation of the unsolved problems maintained in contemporary theoretical physics, revisiting past controversies and putting them in context with contemporary physics. The unsolved problems were the agent stimulating the authors to invent a new bold unification scheme. Vacuum polarisation, with a vacuuon (a pair of strongly bound opposite-signed charges) as a free entity, gets you back to the days of the ether concept, abandoned by physics after the Michelson-Morley experiment by the end of the 19:th century. Starting from constructing the fundamental building blocks for the vacuum and material particles, the Newtonian-Maxwellian solutions the authors obtain yield insights into fundamental concepts such as vacuum, charge, and mass. For instance, can vacuum be described by a building block denoted vacuuon, with or without mass depending on pushed into motion or not? Can free charges be described as a mass-less entity? Can and how vacuum polarise? However, even if vacuum in the real Universe never polarises as proposed in this unification scheme, it may yet serve as another tool in the physics toolbox, a theoretical bridge between classical and modern physics. Physics and physical theory is a human invention, a mathematical description of the intrinsic properties of the Universe and its associated phenomena. Our understanding of the Universe is a reaction of our mind, of our way of understanding. Richard Feynman once noted about the Maxwell equations something that goes like: If a mathematical theory in physics cannot be proved by experiments it remains to be proved mathematically. Ultimately, it must be possible to test any new theory by experiments. If experimental tests are not possible we are left with a mere hypothesis based on equations. The unification scheme proposed by this work consists of a Proposition about the fundamental building blocks (ap- and n-vaculeon) and a series of Predictions from Newtonian-Maxwellian solutions based on that Proposition. The arriving at the Proposition and the Predictions, relating to classical, quantum and relativistic mechanics, is their context. The book is a challenge out of the ordinary, a challenge that deserves careful consideration.

Indeed, according to Straumann, the: "general conservation law of energy and momentum does not exist in general relativity". Twentieth century science moved backward in accepting again the magical creation of matter or energy from nothing, even if this is hidden in complicated mathematics. Contrary to what Einstein did, all the demonstrations in this book are compatible with the principle of mass-energy and momentum conservation. Using classical mechanics, we demonstrate that length contraction is a real physical phenomenon. We examine how this leads to the Lorentz equations. Then, we show how classical principles are sufficient to explain the advance of the perihelion of Mercury and derive Einstein's equation. The fundamental reason for this advance is illustrated with a classical apparatus. We also study the Lorentz transformations in three dimensions and the Doppler phenomenon.