Elements Of Newtonian Mechanics

This book is intended as a textbook for an entry-level university course in Newtonian mechanics for students of physics, astronomy, and the engineering sciences. The material has been used as a first-semester text for first-year undergraduates at the Niels Bohr Institute, which is part of the University of Copenhagen. Our way of presenting Newtonian mechanics is influenced by the writings of the late Max Born. Also, the Feynman Lectures on Physics have been an important source of inspiration. In fact, the idea for the book came when we read Section 16.1 of Volume 1 of the Feynman Lectures. Ideas from the well-known Berkeley Physics Course may also be traced in the text. All of the books quoted in the literature list have, in one way or another, served as a source for our lectures for undergraduates. It is assumed that the students already have a rudimentary knowledge of Newtonian mechanics, say at the high-school level. Some background in vectors and elementary calculus is also required, i.e., the students should know how to add vectors as well as how to differentiate and integrate elementary functions. The Appendix contains the required background for the use of vectors in Newtonian mechanics.

In the third edition a number of minor misprints that appeared in the second edition have have been corrected. Furthermore, 17 new problems have been added, at the end of chapters 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, and 14. The answers to these 17 problems have not been listed in the 'Answers' section at the end of the book. This will permit the problems to be used as hand-in problems or perhaps in mid-term exams. JMK €9 PGH Copenhagen May 2000 Preface to the Second Edition In the second edition, a number of misprints that appeared in the first edition have been corrected. In addition to this, we have made improvements based on the experience gathered in the use of the first English edition of the book in the introductory course in physics at the University of Copenhagen. A chapter introducing nonlinear dynamics has been added. The purpose of this chapter is to provide supplementary reading for the students who are interested in this area of active research, where Newtonian mechanics plays an essential role. The students who wish to dig deeper, should consult texts dedicated to the study of nonlinear dynamical systems and chaos. The literature list at the end of this book contains several references for the topic.

In the second edition, a number of misprints that appeared in the first edition have been corrected. In addition to this, we have made improvements based on the experience gathered in the use of the first English edition of the book in the introductory course in physics at the University of Copenhagen. A chapter introducing nonlinear dynamics has been added. The purpose of this chapter is to provide supplementary reading for the students who are interested in this area of active research, where Newtonian mechanics plays an essential role. The students who wish to dig deeper, should consult texts dedicated to the study of nonlinear dynamical systems and chaos. The literature list at the end of this book contains several references for the topic. The book still contains a one-semester (15 weeks) first university course on Newtonian mechanics. This necessarily introduces some constraints on the choice of topics and the level of mathematical sophistication expected from the reader. If one looks for discussions of technical issues, such as the physics behind various manifestations of friction, or the tensorial nature of the rotation vector, one will look in vain. The book contains what we feel are the essential aspects of Newtonian Mechanics. It is a pleasure again to thank Springer-Verlag and in particular Dr. H. J. KOisch and the staff at the Heidelberg office for helpfulness and professional collaboration.

The first volume in a three-part series, Elements of Mechanics provides a rigorous calculus-based introduction to classical physics. It considers diverse phenomena in a systematic manner and emphasises the development of consistent and coherent models guided by symmetry considerations and the application of general principles. Modern developments c

Newtonian mechanics is a cornerstone topic in physics. Regardless of the path an aspiring physicist takes, an intimate and intuitive understanding of how objects behave within Newton's law of motion is essential. Yet the transition from high school physics to university level physics can be — and should be — difficult. The aim of this book is to teach Newtonian mechanics suitable for the first two years of university study. Using carefully chosen and detailed examples to expose areas of frequent misunderstanding, the first two thirds of the book introduces material familiar to high school students from the ground up, with a more mature point of view. The final third of the book contains new material, introducing detailed sections on the rotation of rigid objects and providing an insight into subtleties that can be troubling to the first-time learner. Tabletop physics demonstrations are suggested to assist in understanding the worked examples. As a teacher and lecturer of physics with experience at both high school and university level, Professor Vijay Tymms offers a lucid and sensitive presentation of Newtonian mechanics to help make the step from high school to university as smooth as possible.

Newtonian mechanics : dynamics of a point mass (1001-1108) - Dynamics of a system of point masses (1109-1144) - Dynamics of rigid bodies (1145-1223) - Dynamics of deformable bodies (1224-1272) - Analytical mechanics : Lagrange's equations (2001-2027) - Small oscillations (2028-2067) - Hamilton's canonical equations (2068-2084) - Special relativity (3001-3054).

The word "elements" in the title of this book does not convey the implica tion that its contents are "elementary" in the sense of "easy": it mainly means that no prerequisites are required, with the exception of some basic background in classical physics and calculus. It also signifies "devoted to the foundations". In fact, the arguments chosen are all very classical, and the formal or technical developments of this century are absent, as well as a detailed treatment of such problems as the theory of the planetary motions and other very concrete mechanical problems. This second meaning, however, is the result of the necessity of finishing this work in a reasonable amount of time rather than an a priori choice. Therefore a detailed review of the "few" results of ergodic theory, of the "many" results of statistical mechanics, of the classical theory of fields (elasticity and waves), and of quantum mechanics are also totally absent; they could constitute the subject of two additional volumes on mechanics. This book grew out of several courses on meccanica razionaie, i.e., essentially, theoretical mechanics, which I gave at the University of Rome during the years 1975-1978.