Classical Mechanics - by John R Taylor (Hardcover)

About the Book

ClassicalMechanics is intended for students who have studied some mechanics in anintroductory physics course.With unusual clarity, the book covers most of the topics normally found in books at this level.

Book Synopsis

ClassicalMechanics is intended for students who have studied some mechanics in anintroductory physics course.With unusual clarity, the book covers most of the topics normally found in books at this level.
John Taylor has brought to his most recent book, Classical Mechanics, all of the clarity and insight that made his Introduction to Error Analysis a best-selling text. Classical Mechanics is intended for students who have studied some mechanics in an introductory physics course, such as "freshman physics." With unusual clarity, the book covers most of the topics normally found in books at this level, including conservation laws, oscillations, Lagrangian mechanics, two-body problems, non-inertial frames, rigid bodies, normal modes, chaos theory, Hamiltonian mechanics, and continuum mechanics. A particular highlight is the chapter on chaos, which focuses on a few simple systems, to give a truly comprehensible introduction to the concepts that we hear so much about. At the end of each chapter is a large selection of interesting problems for the student, 744 in all, classified by topic and approximate difficulty, and ranging for simple exercises to challenging computer projects. A Student Solutions Manual is also available.Adopted by more than 450 colleges and universities in the US and Canada and translated into six languages, Taylor's Classical Mechanics is a thorough and very readable introduction to a subject that is four hundred years old but as exciting today as ever. The author manages to convey that excitement as well as deep understanding and insight.

Review Quotes

"A superb text. The clarity and readability of the book is so much better than anything else on the market, that I confidently predict this book will soon be the most widely used book on the subject in all American universities, and probably Canadian and European universities also. I judge it to be at least ten times better, maybe more, than the other two popular classical mechanics books on the market right now, the book by Fowles, which students say is too terse to understand, and the book by Marion and Thornton, which students say is so wordy and lengthy that they feel quickly lost." --American Journal of Physics

"I expect to use Professor Taylor's book at every opportunity. It is a fabulous example of clarity and precision - one of my very favorite physics texts." --Ben Newling, University of New Brunswick

"I taught this same course several times using a different, but well known, textbook. In my estimation, Taylor's book is far superior. It is very sensibly organized, and can be read without hopping back and forth between sections or chapters. The introduction of variational principles and Lagrangian mechanics is seamless, and conducted fairly early on. The students grasped it much more quickly than I anticipated...Kudos to Taylor." --Michael Cavagnero, University of Kentucky

"I will never sell this book. When I'm a strict, bitter old professor, it will be Classical Mechanics by John R. Taylor that I will remember as the book that renewed my love for such a beautiful subject." --Dmitry, Student of Mathematics and Physics at University of Waterloo

"Taylor's book is unique among classical mechanics texts. It comprehensively covers the field at the Sophomore/Junior level. At the same time, it is immensely readable, a quality that comparable texts lack." --Jonathan Friedman, Amherst College

"Taylor's Classical Mechanics is an excellent compromise between Marion, which contains too much material explained in too much detail for my tastes, and Fowles, which is much too terse. It is accessible for strong second-semester sophomores and is probably about right for first-semester juniors. The computer exercises in the end-of-chapter problems are particularly welcome." --Alma C. Zook, Pomona College

"The book is excellent. The core of a truly superb mechanics course is covered in Taylor's text. I, personally, want this book now." --Robert Pompi, State University of New York, Binghamton