Product Description

End-of-chapter summaries.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #161054 in Books
• Published on: 2004-07-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 500 pages

Review
"Classical Mechanics by T Kibble and F Berkshire is tailor-made for budding theoreticians. It lays the groundwork for relativity and quantum theory, quickly progressing beyond Newtonian mechanics to the alternative formulations of Joseph Lagrange and William Hamilton." New Scientist "... the student who requires a good book on the older aspects of Classical Mechanics together with a brief introduction to newer ideas will find the third edition useful." Contemporary Physics "This volume, by Kibble and Berkshire, has proved to be a successful book ... the written content and presentation are all excellent." European Journal of Physics

From the Back Cover
This well established text, now in its fourth edition, continues to set out the fundamental principles of the mechanics of particles and rigid bodies, with new added features.
Classical Mechanics now includes two new chapters on the qualitative geometrical features of dynamical systems, and on the distinction between regular and chaotic motion. The book assumes some prior acquaintance with the elementary concepts, but begins with a review of these first principles. Needed results on vectors are summarized in an appendix. Those features of classical mechanics, which are of importance in other branches of physics, particularly the conservation laws and symmetries, are highlighted.
Key Features of this edition include-
- Two new chapters on dynamical systems and their geometry, and on order and chaos
- A wide range of problems with answers. In this edition, the more demanding problems are starred.
- Two new appendices- on conic sections and on the classification of the behaviour of a dynamical system near a critical point
- Emphasis on the basic principles of wide applicability
- End of chapter summaries
- A comprehensive index and list of symbols

Classical Mechanics is written for undergraduate students of physics. It assumes some previous knowledge of the basic concepts and reasonable familiarity with differential and integral calculus.
Tom Kibble is Professor of Theoretical Physics, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London, UK, and a Fellow of the Royal Society. He has published many articles on theoretical particle physics and cosmology. Frank Berkshire is also at the Imperial College. He is Senior Lecturer and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Mathematics, and has published on dynamical systems, waves and fluids. Both authors have long experience of lecturing to physics students.

About the Author
Tom Kibble is Senior Research Fellow and Emeritus Professor of Theoretical Physics at Imperial College London, and a Fellow of the Royal Society. He has published many articles on theoretical particle physics and cosmology. Frank Berkshire is also at Imperial College London. He is Senior Lecturer and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Mathematics, and has published on dynamical systems, waves and fluids. He was elected as Imperial College Teaching Fellow in 1996. Both authors have long experience of lecturing to physics and applied mathematics students.

Customer Reviews

Classical Mechanics at its best
This book is a perfect guide for an undergraduate student in either mathematics or physics. Many good books have been written dealing mainly with quantum mechanics and many physics students seem to have no real knowledge of classical mechanics. This book tries to restore the balance. The earlier chapters cover the topics of rigid bodies, the Lagrangian and Hamilitonian approach to mechanics, while in this later edition a few new chapters deal with Dynamical systems, order and chaos (which only add to the strength of this book) The refreshing thing about this book is that, unlike many textbooks it is easy to follow through private study which is a credit to the authors.

Classical Help
I recently purchased this book again because it was the book i used (maybe a slightly older edition of the book) to learn my physical dynamics at university with. When i left Uni it was the book i was most glad of getting rid of that's because as much as i love this book i absolutely hate it. The question is why? And why did i buy it again? Surely once bitten twice shy?
Well let me explain by stating the pros and cons. (I must point out this is how i felt as a undergraduate studying this book)

Pros
1) Vectors are well explained (use appendix A) better than many maths books.
2) Nice summery at the beginning to help explain the symbols used.
3) The topics you would want to find to covering classical mechanics are here (i.e oscillations, energy, angular momentum, lagrangian mechanics and hamltonians)

Cons
1) The rest of the maths needed to understand many areas of this book are not here (therefore you need a strong grasp of math to understand it)
2) The conventions used in the book feel old and out of date (however pros 2) helps)
3) The math skips from one place to another in a completely incomprehensible manner. (In fact i would recommend knowing the subject before reading the book)
What was that i hear you say? You need to understand classical mechanics before you read this book (that's the way it felt at the time).

In summation I would approximate this book to having a 80 year old physicist with a strong incomprehensible accent rambling on about mechanics and no mere undergraduate mortal can ever hope to understand what the hell is going on.
So why buy it again i hear you ask? Because when you do manage to get a strong understanding of classical mechanics this becomes a great reference book and especially useful when trying to understand Hamiltonians in quantum mechanichs.

OK for timid students
I recommend Hand and Finch above this book, but for a student who only wants 2nd-year-level exposition, Kibble and B might be preferred. The contents are bland and ordinary and straightforward, and at times wrong. For example, K+B perpetuate the nonsense that gyroscopic effects are important when a bicycle is going round a corner. Anyone who has ridden a scooter, or bikes with very light wheels, indeed any bike at all, will know this is rubbish. The fact that they get this wrong makes me mistrust the whole of the rest of the book. Go with Hand and Finch. H+F is cheaper and takes you to graduate level!