Classical Mechanics - fourth edition

Abstract

A thorough understanding of classical mechanics is fundamental to the study of all branches of physics. Over the years many excellent texts have been written to satisfy the needs of undergraduate courses. This volume, by Kibble and Berkshire, has proved to be a successful book. This is the fourth edition. It caters for the needs of physics students at British universities who are offered 20 - 30 lecture courses. It makes a `smooth' transition from school mechanics to university mechanics by presenting relatively simple introductory chapters. Newtonian, Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics are discussed in depth, with many examples. Following the introductory chapters, the chapters are entitled: Central conservative sources, Rotating frames, Potential theory, The two-body problem, Many body systems, Rigid bodies, Lagrangian mechanics, Small oscillations and normal modes, Hamiltonian systems and their geometry. Each chapter of the book has an extensive collection of problems, the more challenging problems being starred. Answers to all problems are given at the back of the book. This edition contains two new chapters on dynamical systems and their geometry and on order and chaos. These are lacking in the other two books to which I will refer. If one compares this British text with comparable American university texts of the same price, the written content and presentation are all excellent. However the quality of the paper and the artwork in this text is inferior to that of American texts. Classical Mechanics by Goldstein, in softback, which is over 30 years old and has gone into many editions, is such an American text. A book on the same subject by Chow, with the same title, is a hardback and a more elementary text than the books by Goldstein and Kibble, but the quality of the paper, cover and diagrams are superior. These non-academic factors are likely to determine which of these texts is purchased by the student.