Mechanics: From Newton's Laws to Deterministic Chaos, Edition 2

· Springer Science & Business Media
Ebook
513
Pages
Ratings and reviews aren’t verified  Learn More

About this ebook

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 modem developments of physics where one fre quently turns back to the principles of c1assical mechanics its model character is feIt. For this reason it is not surprising that the presentation of mechanics reflects to some extent the development of modem physics and that today this c1assical 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, symme tries and invariance principles, the structure ofthespace-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, coIIisions of billiard balls, constrained motions of the cylinder in a washing ma chine, or bicycle riding.

Rate this ebook

Tell us what you think.

Reading information

Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.