Exploring Classical Mechanics

This new edition of a popular textbook offers an original collection of problems in analytical mechanics. Analytical mechanics is the first chapter in the study and understanding of theoretical physics. Its methods and ideas are crucially important, as they form the basis of all other branches of theoretical physics, including quantum mechanics, statistical physics, and field theory. Such concepts as the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formalisms, normal oscillations, adiabatic invariants, Liouville theorem, and canonical transformations lay the foundation, without which any further in-depth study of theoretical physics is impossible. Wherever possible, the authors draw analogies and comparisons with similar processes in electrodynamics, quantum mechanics, or statistical mechanics while presenting the solutions to the problems. The book is based on the authors' many years of experience delivering lectures and seminars at the Department of Physics at Novosibirsk State University -- totalling an impressive 110+ years of combined teaching experience. Most of the problems are original, and will be useful not only for those studying mechanics, but also for those who teach it. The content of the book corresponds to and roughly follows the mechanics course in the well-known textbooks by Landau and Lifshitz, Goldstein, or ter Haar. The Collection... starts with the Newtonian equations, motion in a central field, and scattering. Then the text proceeds to the established, traditional sections of analytical mechanics as part of the course on theoretical physics: the Lagrangian equations, the Noether theorem, linear and nonlinear oscillations, Hamilton formalism, and motion of a solid body. As a rule, the solution of a problem is not complete by just obtaining the required formulae. It's necessary to analyse the result. This can be an interesting process of discovery for the student and is by no means a "mechanical'' part of the solution. It is also very useful to investigate what happens if the conditions of the problem are varied. With this in mind, the authors offer suggestions of further problems at the end of several solutions. First published in 1969 in Russian, this text has become widely used in classrooms around the world. It has been translated into several languages, and has seen multiple editions in various languages.

The question of when and how the basic concepts that characterize modern science arose in Western Europe has long been central to the history of science. This book examines the transition from Renaissance engineering and philosophy of nature to classical mechanics oriented on the central concept of velocity. For this new edition, the authors include a new discussion of the doctrine of proportions, an analysis of the role of traditional statics in the construction of Descartes' impact rules, and go deeper into the debate between Descartes and Hobbes on the explanation of refraction. They also provide significant new material on the early development of Galileo's work on mechanics and the law of fall.

This widly used text teaches analytical mechanics, the first chapter in the study of theoretical physics. Its methods and ideas are crucially important as they form the basis of all other branches of theoretical physics including quantum mechanics, statistical physics, and field theory. Most of the problems are original to this book

The new edition of a classic text that concentrates on developing general methods for studying the behavior of classical systems, with extensive use of computation. We now know that there is much more to classical mechanics than previously suspected. Derivations of the equations of motion, the focus of traditional presentations of mechanics, are just the beginning. This innovative textbook, now in its second edition, concentrates on developing general methods for studying the behavior of classical systems, whether or not they have a symbolic solution. It focuses on the phenomenon of motion and makes extensive use of computer simulation in its explorations of the topic. It weaves recent discoveries in nonlinear dynamics throughout the text, rather than presenting them as an afterthought. Explorations of phenomena such as the transition to chaos, nonlinear resonances, and resonance overlap to help the student develop appropriate analytic tools for understanding. The book uses computation to constrain notation, to capture and formalize methods, and for simulation and symbolic analysis. The requirement that the computer be able to interpret any expression provides the student with strict and immediate feedback about whether an expression is correctly formulated. This second edition has been updated throughout, with revisions that reflect insights gained by the authors from using the text every year at MIT. In addition, because of substantial software improvements, this edition provides algebraic proofs of more generality than those in the previous edition; this improvement permeates the new edition.

This textbook aims to provide a clear and concise set of lectures that take one from the introduction and application of Newton's laws up to Hamilton's principle of stationary action and the lagrangian mechanics of continuous systems. An extensive set of accessible problems enhances and extends the coverage.It serves as a prequel to the author's recently published book entitled Introduction to Electricity and Magnetism based on an introductory course taught sometime ago at Stanford with over 400 students enrolled. Both lectures assume a good, concurrent, course in calculus and familiarity with basic concepts in physics; the development is otherwise self-contained.A good introduction to the subject allows one to approach the many more intermediate and advanced texts with better understanding and a deeper sense of appreciation that both students and teachers alike can share.

Presents classical mechanics as a thriving field with strong connections to modern physics, with numerous worked examples and homework problems.

A comprehensive graduate-level textbook on classical dynamics with many worked examples and over 200 homework exercises, first published in 1998.

This is the fifth edition of a well-established textbook. It is intended to provide a thorough coverage of the fundamental principles and techniques of classical mechanics, an old subject that is at the base of all of physics, but in which there has also in recent years been rapid development. The book is aimed at undergraduate students of physics and applied mathematics. It emphasizes the basic principles, and aims to progress rapidly to the point of being able to handle physically and mathematically interesting problems, without getting bogged down in excessive formalism. Lagrangian methods are introduced at a relatively early stage, to get students to appreciate their use in simple contexts. Later chapters use Lagrangian and Hamiltonian methods extensively, but in a way that aims to be accessible to undergraduates, while including modern developments at the appropriate level of detail. The subject has been developed considerably recently while retaining a truly central role for all students of physics and applied mathematics.This edition retains all the main features of the fourth edition, including the two chapters on geometry of dynamical systems and on order and chaos, and the new appendices on conics and on dynamical systems near a critical point. The material has been somewhat expanded, in particular to contrast continuous and discrete behaviours. A further appendix has been added on routes to chaos (period-doubling) and related discrete maps. The new edition has also been revised to give more emphasis to specific examples worked out in detail.Classical Mechanics is written for undergraduate students of physics or applied mathematics. It assumes some basic prior knowledge of the fundamental concepts and reasonable familiarity with elementary differential and integral calculus.