Mechanics: From Newton's Laws to Deterministic Chaos

By Florian Scheck

Book Overview

Purpose and Emphasis. Mechanics not only is the oldest branch of physics but was and still is the basis for all of theoretical physics. Quantum mechanics can hardly be understood, perhaps cannot even be formulated, without a good kno- edge of general mechanics. Field theories such as electrodynamics borrow their formal framework and many of their building principles from mechanics. In short, throughout the many modern developments of physics where one frequently turns back to the principles of classical mechanics its model character is felt. For this reason it is not surprising that the presentation of mechanics re?ects to some - tent the development of modern physics and that today this classical branch of theoretical physics is taught rather differently than at the time of Arnold S- merfeld, in the 1920s, or even in the 1950s, when more emphasis was put on the theoryandtheapplicationsofpartial-differentialequations. Today, symmetriesand invariance principles, the structure of the space-time continuum, and the geom- rical structure of mechanics play an important role. The beginner should realize that mechanics is not primarily the art of describing block-and-tackles, collisions of billiard balls, constrained motions of the cylinder in a washing machine, or - cycle riding.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 3642260462
• ISBN13: 9783642260469
• Release Date: March 2012
• Publisher: Springer
• Length: 547 Pages
• Weight: 1.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Fast paced but clearly written

For the listed price of $38US this book is indeed a bargain. It is clearly written with a rational organization of topics and most sections are accompanied with meaningful examples. I especially enjoyed the development of the Hamiltonian. On the other hand, this is not an easy text - you may not be able to watch Jerry Springer as you read it; a basic familiarity calculus, vector analysis and physics will be needed to make any head way at all. I wish I had used this text in college.