Classical Mechanics

For 30 years, this classic text has been the acknowledged standard in classical mechanics courses. Classical Mechanics enables students to make connections between classical and modern physics an indispensable part of a physicist s education. The authors have updated the topics, applications, and notations to reflect today s physics curriculum. They introduce students to the increasingly important role that nonlinearities play in contemporary applications of classical mechanics. New numerical exercises help students develop skills in the use of computer techniques to solve problems in physics. Mathematical techniques are presented in detail so that the text remains fully accessible to students who have not had an intermediate course in classical mechanics.

Features

The classical approach of this leading text book has been revised and updated A section on the Euler and Lagrange exact solutions to the three-body problem A section on the damped driven oscillator as an example of the workings of the Josephson junction Chapter on canonical perturbation theory has been streamlined and the mathematics has been simplified Approximately 45 new problems, mostly in Chapters 1 8 and 11. Problems sets are now divided into Derivations and Exercises Solutions for 19 select problems have been provided in Appendix C

Table Of Contents:

Survey of the Elementary Principles Variational Principles and Lagrange s Equations The Central Force Problem The Kinematics of Rigid Body Motion The Rigid Body Equations of Motion Oscillations The Classical Mechanics of the Special Theory of Relativity The Hamilton Equations of Motion Canonical Transformations Hamilton Jacobi Theory and Action-Angle Variables Classical Chaos Canonical Perturbation Theory Introduction to the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian Formulations for Continuous Systems and Fields Appendix A Euler Angles in Alternate Conventions and Cayley Klein Parameters Appendix B Groups and Algebras Appendix C Solutions to Select Exercises Selected Bibliography Author Index Subject Index