Mechanics

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-XIV

   PDF

2. Elementary Newtonian Mechanics

   • Florian A. Scheck

   Pages 1-76

3. The Principles of Canonical Mechanics

   • Florian A. Scheck

   Pages 77-165

4. The Mechanics of Rigid Bodies

   • Florian A. Scheck

   Pages 167-217

5. Relativistic Mechanics

   • Florian A. Scheck

   Pages 219-262

6. Geometric Aspects of Mechanics

   • Florian A. Scheck

   Pages 263-334

7. Stability and Chaos

   • Florian A. Scheck

   Pages 335-397

8. Continuous Systems

   • Florian A. Scheck

   Pages 399-416

9. Back Matter

   Pages 417-529

   PDF

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 knowledge 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 reflects of modern physics and that today this classical to some extent the development branch of theoretical physics is taught rather differently than at the time of Arnold Sommerfeld, in the 1920s, or even in the 1950s, when more emphasis was put on the theory and the applications of partial-differential equations. Today, symmetries and invariance principles, the structure of the space-time continuum, and the geometrical 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 bicycle riding.

• Hamiltonian
• Mechanik
• Newtonian mechanics
• Nichtlineare Dynamik
• chaos
• dynamics
• geometry
• mechanics
• nonlinear dynamics
• relativity
• rigid bodies
• solution
• special relativity
• stability
• theory of relativity

From the reviews:

"¿ The author writes well and comprehensively ¿ Ideal for a physics student desirous of mastering the basic tools." Contemporary Physics

"Scheck has provided us with an assortment of problems¿In addition, he has added an innovation: ¿practical¿ exercises along with suggested methods of approach for a solution¿ I would not be surprised if it were to find wider use among faculty and advanced students seeking to update their picture of mechanics¿one might do considerably worse than to use it as an entrée into the literature of chaos." American Scientist

• Institut für Physik, Theoretische Elementarteilchenphysik, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz, Germany

  Florian A. Scheck

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