Product Description

Devoted to the foundation of mechanics, namely classical Newtonian mechanics, the subject is based mainly on Galileo's principle of relativity and Hamilton's principle of least action. The exposition is simple and leads to the most complete direct means of solving problems in mechanics.

The final sections on adiabatic invariants have been revised and augmented. In addition a short biography of L D Landau has been inserted.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #53952 in Books
• Published on: 1982-01-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Review
"The Landau and Lifshitz series is almost uniformly excellent... the level is appropriate in advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate students"
Philip B Burt
Clemson University
USA

"An outstanding book for advanced students"
John H Lienhard
MIT University
USA

About the Author
By E M Lifshitz and L D Landau

Customer Reviews

Close to perfection.
This marvellous book of Landau, Lifshitz is the best adult presentation of "classical" classical mechanics, that is, leaving aside problems of stability, chaos, etc. With this proviso, the book is perfect. It is very short, not by omitting things, but by choosing (and rigidly adhering to it) a very sound philosophy: exploring the connection between symmetries and conservation laws. This explains why the dynamics is based on the action principle, which, as shown by Wigner, is the optimum language for expliciting the discoveries of Emmy Noether. The whole book follows this line, making the exposition very original and, at points, quite surprising (as when the mass is proved to be positive). In my opinion the climax of the book is the theory of the Hamilton-Jacobi equation, along the ideas of Jacobi. I know of no place where this is so admirably done. Simple and beautiful. After learning it, and the applications contained in the book, you can learn the miracles ! Landau and Lifshitz perform with this equation in all areas of physics, particularly in General Relativity.

A CLASSIC BOOK ON MECHANICS
This is the Volume 1 of the famous Course of Theoretical Physics by L. D. Landau and E. M. Lifshitz. All serious students of theoretical physics must possess the ten volumes of this excellent Course, which cover in detail and rigour practically all the branches of theoretical physics. The Volume 1 treats the subject of classical mechanics in an elegant and logically correct way. The autors avoid tautological definitions of the basic mechanical quantities, taking as the starting point the Hamilton's principle of least action and Galileo's relativity principle. This book is indicated to all those who have some aqquaintance with mechanics and have the desire of solidify the knowledge of this important branch of theoretical physics. A classic!

Good, but the maths is difficult!
I got this book to aid me with a 3rd year undergraduate module on analytical mechanics. I found the bit on Euler-Lagrange equations and Lagrangians, and also conserved quantities very clear and concise, and it helped my understanding no end.

However, pursuing parts of the rest of the book for my own self-study, I came across many nightmarish terms and integrals that made my head spin!!! For example, what is 'an elliptic integral of the first kind'? What are beta and gamma functions? It seems to be assumed in the text that general readers will understand these terms, and trivially be able to do these integrals, and therefore, the examples aren't explained fully enough.

In conclusion, I think the explaination of the material is excellent, but be prepared to be bamboozled by complex mathematical terms.