Apart from an introductory chapter giving a brief summary of Newtonian and Lagrangian mechanics, this book consists entirely of questions and solutions on topics in classical mechanics that will be encountered in undergraduate and graduate courses. These include one-, two-, and three- dimensional motion; linear and nonlinear oscillations; energy, potentials, momentum, and angular momentum; spherically symmetric potentials; multi-particle systems; rigid bodies; translation and rotation of the reference frame; the relativity principle and some of its consequences. The solutions are followed by a set of comments intended to stimulate inductive reasoning and provide additional information of interest. Both analytical and numerical (computer) techniques are used obtain and analyze solutions. The computer calculations use Mathematica (version 7), and the relevant code is given in the text. It includes use of the interactive Manipulate function which enables one to observe simulated motion on a computer screen, and to study the effects of changing parameters. The book will be useful to students and lecturers in undergraduate and graduate courses on classical mechanics, and students and lecturers in courses in computational physics.
Author(s): Owen de Lange, John Pierrus
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Year: 2010
Language: English
Pages: 608
Contents......Page 8
1 Introduction......Page 10
2 Miscellanea......Page 20
3 One-dimensional motion......Page 39
4 Linear oscillations......Page 69
5 Energy and potentials......Page 101
6 Momentum and angular momentum......Page 136
7 Motion in two and three dimensions......Page 166
8 Spherically symmetric potentials......Page 225
9 The Coulomb and oscillator problems......Page 272
10 Two-body problems......Page 295
11 Multi-particle systems......Page 334
12 Rigid bodies......Page 408
13 Non-linear oscillations......Page 463
14 Translation and rotation of the reference frame......Page 527
15 The relativity principle and some of its consequences......Page 566
Appendix......Page 597
C......Page 599
D......Page 600
F......Page 601
G......Page 602
K......Page 603
M......Page 604
P......Page 605
R......Page 606
T......Page 607
Z......Page 608
