Mechanics: From Newton's Laws to Deterministic Chaos

by Florian Scheck

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 reffects 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783662554906
Publisher:	Springer-Verlag New York, LLC
Publication date:	01/19/2018
Series:	Graduate Texts in Physics
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	40 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Florian A. Scheck, professor emeritus at University of Mainz, Germany.Born in 1936, diploma degree 1962 , Ph.D. (Dr. rer.nat) 1964, both at U. Freiburg, Germany. Habilitation at U. Heidelberg 1968. Guest scientist at the Weizmann Instituteof Science, Rehovoth, (1964 – 1966), research assistant U. Heidelberg, (1966 – 1968), research fellow at CERN, Geneva, (1968 – 1970), head of theory groupSIN/PSI, lecturer and titular professor at ETH Zurich (1970 – 1976). Professor of theoretical Physics U. Mainz (1976 – 2005). Numerous visits as guest scientist or guest professor, Helsinki, Montpellier, Marseille, San José (Costa Rica), Bogota (Columbia).

Table of Contents

Elementary Newtonian Mechanics.- The Principles of Canonical Mechanics.- The Mechanics of Rigid Bodies.- Relativistic Mechanics.- Geometric Aspects of Mechanics.- Stability and Chaos.- Continuous Systems.

Editorial Reviews

Classical mechanics provides the conceptual foundation on which the remainder of physics--however radically "non-classical" it might superficially appear--rests. The shape of modern developments does, however, serve to control the manner in which the rich subject matter of classical mechanics is organized and presented. The latter point is illustrated very nicely by the present text, which is intended to serve the needs of thoughtful graduate and advanced undergraduate students of physics and which derives from a course taught over the years at Johannes Gutenberg Univ. (Mainz, Germany). Chapter 5 provides a good introduction to the differential geometric aspects of mechanics, Chapter 6 looks to stability and chaos, Chapter 7 to classical field theory. Arguably the best "modern approach to classical mechanics" presently available. Good exercises are collected together at the end of the volume. The production quality is good, the price is right, and the text appears quite capable of the serious work for which it was intended. (NW) Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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