Classical Mechanics

Key features

• The classic approach of this leading text has been revised and updated without increasing the overall length of the book.
• NEW! Chapter 11 on classical chaos theory builds from the Hamilton-Jacobi theory to introduce nonlinear dynamics and fractal dimensionality as it relates to classical mechanics.
• REVISED! Chapter 7 now presents special relativity using the standard real metric (in lieu of the complex Minkowski space) and coordinate-free notation, and includes a brief introduction to the concepts of general relativity.
• UPDATED! A section on the Euler and Lagrange exact solutions to the three-body problem has been added to Chapter 3.
• UPDATED! A section on the damped driven oscillator as an example of the workings of the Josephson junction has been added to Chapter 6.
• REVISED! Chapter 12 on Canonical Perturbation Theory has been streamlined and the mathematics has been simplified.
• NEW! Approximately 45 new problems, mostly in Chapters One through Eight and Eleven.
• Problem sets are now helpfully divided into "Derivations" and "Exercises."

• 1. Survey of the Elementary Principles.
• 2. Variational Principles and Lagrange's Equations.
• UPDATED! 3. The Central Force Problem.
• 4. The Kinematics of Rigid Body Motion.
• 5. The Rigid Body Equations of Motion.
• UPDATED! 6. Oscillations.
• REVISED! 7. The Classical Mechanics of the Special Theory of Relativity.
• 8. The Hamiltonian Equations of Motion.
• 9. Canonical Transformations.
• 10. Hamilton-Jacobi Theory and Action Angle Variables.
• NEW! 11. Classical Chaos.
• REVISED! 12. Canonical Perturbation Theory.
• 13. Introduction to Lagrangian and Hamiltonian Formulations for Continuous Systems and Fields.
• Appendixes.
• Select Bibliography.
• Index.