No label defined (Q4951797)

This book is designed for first-year graduate physics students at Boston University studying ``intermediate mechanics''. The author assumes the knowledge of curvilinear coordinates, vector analysis, advanced calculus etc. As much time as possible should be meant for going through the calculations and solving problems. Chapter 1 covers informally the material that will be treated extensively in the book, presenting an introduction to the analytical mechanics. Chapter 2 gives a list of formulas to be drawn from in the following chapters. Mechanical oscillations is the topic of chapter 3, which ends with a sketchy introduction to chaos for discrete maps, a field founded a century ago by Poincaré and cultivated intensively in recent years. Chapter 4 and 5 cover coordinate systems, inertial forces, and the theory of rigid bodies. Analytical mechanics begins with chapter 6 devoted to Lagrangian mechanics. Problems already worked out in previous chapters are again solved by using Lagrangian methods, and in many cases the existence of integrals of motion can be obtained by a simple inspection of the Lagrangian. Some problems requiring a fair amount of work are proposed, where it is easy to establish the Lagrangian equations of motion and to find conserved quantities. Chapter 7 presents Hamiltonian mechanics. Canonical transformations are discussed at length, and the use of Cartan's differential forms in providing a concise description of mechanics is extolled with missionary zeal. Cartan's notation is used throughout this chapter as well as in chapter 8 dealing with action-angle variables and adiabatic invariants. Chapter 9 treats the classical perturbation theory with emphasis on the similarity to the perturbation theory in quantum mechanics and in field theory. Relativistic dynamics is discussed in chapter 10, where the reader, in addition to standard topics, becomes familiar with the ``spinor connection'', the spin, and the Thomas precession. The final chapter 11 illustrates Lagrangian and Hamiltonian methods for continuous systems by discussing two case studies: vibrating string and ideal incompressible inviscid fluid.