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Complete Pocket Sized Classical Mechanics
This seriously underrated book is an excellent introduction and companion for classical mechanics.
Pocket sized and cheap, it makes for a perfect book that any undergraduate(and even graduates as a quick reference guide) should have.

the only set-back is the paperback presentation that seems quite fragile.

An excellent alternative to Goldstein et al.
I used Fetter and Walecka (FW) in a first year graduate course. I was a bit shocked when I first learned that the "standard" text of Goldstein, Poole and Safko was being supplanted with this book. Aside from the material, this book has taught me that standard isn't always better.

FW is very thorough, and has a great logical flow. You won't have to read a chapter twenty times to understand what is being said, nor where the mathematics comes from. Note however, that some prior experience with classical mechanics is assumed; this is not an undergraduate textbook.

The one criticism that I have of the text is that it does not deal with non-linear systems. Although it is very common to use linear models in physics, students should have some exposure to systems where higher order effects are important. FW does have a non-linear supplement which contains the material for about one chapter worth of material, and it's pretty good.

Within the context of being a graduate text, the problems are very reasonable. They require some thought, as all problems in graduate school should. However, they are not nearly as challenging as, for example, some in J.D. Jackson's Electrodynamics book. {Insert typical grumble about Jackson here.} The problems are interesting, and engaging, and relate their respective chapters and/or to cumulative knowledge.

In my opinion, graduate school is about learning how to approximate and approach real-world problems. FW does an excellent job of preparing its readers to do just that. I highly recommend its consideration for adoption as a course text.

Perfect!
This book covers all the main topics that a mechanics course at the advance undergraduate or graduate level should have and more. It starts with a first chapter on Basic Principles where the authors do a general review about Newtonian mechanics, that is, Newton's laws, angular momentum, energy, conservation laws, center of mass motion, two body motion with a central potential and scattering. Then follows a chapter on Accelerated Coordinate Systems where you encounter things like the Corioly acceleration and centrifugal forces. Chapter three is a delight, it is about Lagrangian Dynamics where you learn a much powerfull formalism than newton's equations to solve problems using the Lagrangian function, learning about virtual displacements and generalized coordinates (also D'Alambert and Hamilton's principle). Chapter four is about Small Oscillations, it is very important since here you learn to work with many-particle systems that are use a lot in condense matter physics, the very well known normal coordinates are here introduced. Chapter five is about Rigid Bodies, chapter six is about Hamiltonian Dynamics, this chapter connects very well with chapter three illustrating yet another method to solve mechanics problems by defining canonically momentas for every generalized coordinates and then finding a set of first orders differential equations involving the hamiltonian (as opposed to chapter three where either D'Alambert or Hamilton principle lead to a system of second order differential equations) The hamiltonian is defined as a Legendre transformation of the Lagrangian function, also the Poisson brackets are introduced here and it is even explained how to do the transition between classical and quantum mechanics and also canonical transformations are introduced. This first six chapters make purchasing this book worthwhile but as if this weren't enough there are still another seven chapters more! I will just write their names: 7-Strings, 8-Membranes, 9-Sound waves in fluids, 10-Surface waves on fluids, 11- Heat Conduction, 12-Viscous Fluids and 13-Elastic continua. It also brings 5 appendices. This book is very well written and I always come back to it when I have to remember some mechanics formula or issue to re-study, I say that this book and Goldstein are the best books you can get on classical mechanics. ... Read more

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Recently, major progress has been made in the development of equations to describe the motion of fluid-particle mixtures and their application to a limited range of problems. However, results are only as good as their underlying equations, so it is essential to have a clear understanding of the fundamental physics. In The Dynamics of Fluidized Particles, Jackson formulates these equations carefully and fully describes the important existing applications that test their ability to predict salient phenomena. ... Read more

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3.5 Stars -- Good Supplementary Material
I'm currently taking Professor Fetter's undergraduate mechanics course at Stanford, for which Marion & Thornton's Classical Dynamics is the required text.Professor Fetter provides references to relevant sections in his and other texts as supplementary reading to Marion & Thornton.Of all the others (including Goldstein), his provides the most lucid, complete discussion of several key topics in dynamics:

1. Small Oscillations (coupled oscillators, normal coordinates, eigenvalue problems)

2. Continuous Media (passage from loaded string to continuum limit)3. Strings/Wave Propagation (e.g. d'Alembert, Bernoulli)

These are the sections I found useful.Others were not.I recommend this book as useful auxiliary material to standard texts like M&T.The level is slightly above M&T, but I found the use of matrix notation (vs. ungodly summations) very helpful.And Professor Fetter is a great teacher!

- A Sophomore Physics Major

Useful only for its continuum mechanics coverage
The first half of this text covers the standard graduate mechanics cirriculum, while the second half covers strings, membranes, and other continuum topics.The section on particle mechanics is poorly done: the entire section on Hamilton's method is bad, and the treatment of theHamilton-Jacobi method is disastrous (of all the topics to mess up!).Thediscussions offer no insight into the material being presented; both thesmall oscillations chapter and the Hamilton mechanics chapter are simplycollections of formulae.I also disagree with their approach to Lagrangiandynamics.They, like Goldstein, begin with a tedious discussion of virtualwork and D'Alembert's principle.I prefer Landau's approach- justintroduce the action and get on with it.I don't believe that anything islearned from their method.

Much of the book reads as if the authors arejust piecing together the relevant sections from other texts, whileremoving the copied authors' insights.Indeed, they're caught red-handedin chapter 1.Not only are problems 1.17, 1.18 directly from Landau'stext, the wording is identical, the problems are divided into the sameparts, and just as problem 1.18 directly follows 1.17 in this text, itdirectly follows the same problem in Landau's book.

This book reallydoesn't do anything in partcle mechanics well.It's examples are trivial(a common problem), and modern methods (see V.I. Arnold's book and adynamical systems text) are omitted.There's no reason to use this forparticle mechanics when Landau's beautiful text is available.And althoughI've never used it, I'd wager that Landau's continuum mechanics book isbetter than this text's coverage...

Excellent introductory Graduate text in classical mechanics
In the same spirt as Herbert Goldstein's "Classical Mechanics" (second edition), Fetter and Walecka covers the basics of graduate classical mechanics, while extending the treatment of the material into its quantum counterparts.The problems and examples, while not as difficult as Goldstein's, are appropriate for a 1st year graduate class.

Of exceptional note is the chapter entitled "Strings" which extends the treament of most of classical mechanics into the quantum regime.Thissection also gives the student an excellent first introduction to the variational and perturbation methods for finding exact and approximate solutions. ... Read more

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The series of texts on Classical Theoretical Physics is based on the highlysuccessful series of courses given by Walter Greiner at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Intended for advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students, the volumes in the series provide not only a complete survey of classical theoretical physics but also an enormous number of worked examples and problems to show students clearly how to apply the abstract principles to realistic problems. ... Read more

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Fantastic
This is a fantastic book for the motivated physics student.
It is the best "theoretical" approach to Newtonian physics that I have found.At the University level, motivated Physics students are left with the frustration of taking their first few Physics courses with students who are majoring in Engineering, Chemistry, Biology, Pre-med, etc., etc.This leaves the situation where material is presented "watered down" and entirely non-theoretical in order to allow all students to follow along.
For the motivated Physics major, this can be quite frustrating.The first thing many of them do in that situation is begin a path of self-study to go along with the dry classroom presentation of the material.However, the search for a more mathematically driven "theoretic" approach to mechanics leads almost entirely to Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formalism.

This book presents Newtonian mechanics in all its theoretical "math nerd" glory.All necessary mathematical topics are covered with "physics rigor" that allows you to gain a usable knowledge of the mathematics in a minimal time.It has been the only book I've found that sticks to Newtonian mechanics, yet avoids the point and click "apply equation X here" methods that most introductory University texts give. I used it as a supplement to my assigned physics book for Mechanics and Heat and felt exceedingly more prepared than my fellow students with each succeeding chapter.

If you're a motivated student, I highly suggest picking up this book.The first year or two of a University Physics program can be uncomfortably dry....and you'll hear many times that students don't feel like they're doing "real" physics until their Junior year.This book will allow you the feel of doing "real physics" while sticking to the Newtonian mechanics that you'll use for your courses. By the end of the book, you'll feel comfortable with all the mathematical derivations and applications of Newtonian mechanics, have a solid grasp of harmonic oscillations, have a solid background in solving ordinary differential equations, feel comfortable with matrix algebra applications, and get the enjoyment that comes with doing "real physics" a good year or two before your classmates.

My only complaint is with some of the presentation of relativity.It is still well above average, but I didn't find it to be the asset of a self-study supplement that it was for freshman physics.

Excellent supplementary book
Simply stated, I don't consider this "the book" on the subject, but it is a most-have.It begins by developing some of the mathematical foundations needed to solve the problems; followed by some Newtonian mechanics (basic concepts: force, energy, motion in 1D-3D, and many examples and applications), and ends with special relativity.The topics are presented in a clear and straight-forward manner, although some of them were too simple and not as thorough as I wished.

This book corresponds to a regular 1st semester in mechanics.It should be complemented with the second book (Classical Mechanics) which deals with non-inertial reference frames, systems of particles, rigid bodies, Lagrange equ. and Hamiltonian Theory.

I give this book 4.5 stars (I'm a tough grader) ... Read more

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This book is a quantum mechanics text, written on the assumption that the purpose of learning quantum mechanics is to be able to understand the results of fundamental research into the constitution of the physical world. The text essentially concerns itself with three themes, these being a logical exposition of quantum mechanics, a full discussion of the difficulties in the interpretation of quantum mechanics, and an outline of the current state of understanding of theoretical particle physics, The reader is assumed to have some mathematical skill, but no prior knowledge of physics is assumed. The book will be used for final-year undergraduate courses in mathematics and physics, and of interest to professionals in philosophy and pure mathematics. ... Read more

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Quickie introduction to the frontiers of QM
Anthony Sudbery succeeds in taking the reader with some graduate level education in mathematics to the frontiers of QM circa. 1980s.In taking you there, he leads you through all the fundamentals, the Schrodinger, Feynman, Dyson, and Diract formulations of QM.He is obviously biased to using Dirac's notations, and rightfully so. There are several problems at the end of each chapter for the more adventurous.The book iscertainly a good introduction to those witha strong physics background as well.Everything considered, an execellent book that can be kept in one of the lower shelves for quick access atyour workplace or home. ... Read more

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nonlinear mechanics
A good introduction to nonlinear phenomena. The examples shown in the text present a wide selection from different areas of knowledge. This volume can be accesible to engineering and science students, but also can be a vauable source of information for graduate courses on dynamical systems.Theoretical Mechanics of Particles and Continua

Very in-depth
This book analyzes very complicated systems concisely, which I presume is why it is a supplement. Get this book if you're interested in the various solutions to certain complex systems and are not afraid of advanced mathematics. ... Read more

Product Description

The series of texts on Classical Theoretical Physics is based on the highly successful series of courses given by Walter Greiner at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Intended for advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students, the volumes in the series provide not only a complete survey of classical theoretical physics but also an enormous number of worked examples and problems to show students clearly how to apply the abstract principles to realistic problems.

This edition contains two new chapters on generalized theory of canonical transformations and the Hamilton-Lagrange formalism, as well as new sections in the chapter on Hamiltonian theory. All chapters have been completely revised and updated and numerous new exercises have been added.

Customer Reviews (2)

Classical Mechanics
I have used some of Greiner's textbooks for my teaching and my students like them very much. Greiner's series of textbooks are comprehensive, comprehensible and contain a lot of non-trivial examples worked out in detail-something that is very important for the students. Just a few gripes-there are quite a number of typos and the notation sometimes does not conform to common English usage. Future editions should make the textbooks better.

good but not enough
This book belong to good german teaching tradition, but falls
below Golstein standard.It is a good text for the exercises
but do not expect deep explanation for generatrix function,Hamilton Jacobi resolution methods and Poisson brackets
relaion to differential geomery ... Read more

Product Description

This practical guide to PIV provides in a condensed form most of the information relevant for the planning, performance and understanding of experiments employing the PIV technique. In its second edition, the authors updated the chapters on the principles and included information on microscopic, high-speed and three component measurements as well as a description of advanced evaluation techniques. Steve Wereley with his knowledge completed the group of authors of the first edition and his participation as an author was the key for that update. But also the drastic increase in the range of possible applications has been taken into account as the chapter describing representative applications of the PIV technique has been expanded considerably.

The resulting book is mainly intended for engineers, scientists and students, who already have some basic knowledge of fluid mechanics and non-intrusive optical measurement techniques. For many researchers and engineers planning to utilize PIV for their special industrial or scientific applications, PIV is just an attractive tool with unique features which may help them to gain new insights in problems of fluid mechanics. These people are usually not interested in becoming specialists in this field before starting their investigations. On the other side some of the basic properties of PIV must be well understood before a correct interpretation of the results is possible.

Customer Reviews (1)

One of the best references for PIV
A good reference for both beginners and experts in doing PIV. Has deep explaination in every chapter. I like chapter 5 (Image evaluation methods for PIV) and chapter 6 (Post-processing of PIV data) the most. Also, there are hundreds of good references for PIV in the back of the book too. I have been using this book for my graduate research when dealing with PIV. ... Read more

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This book examines the study of mechanical systems as well as its links to other sciences of nature. It presents the fundamentals behind how mechanical theories are constructed and details the solving methodology and mathematical tools used: vectors, tensors and notions of field theory. It also offers continuous and discontinuous phenomena as well as various mechanical magnitudes in a unitary form by means of the theory of distributions.

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This title includes the often-neglected topics of relativistic scattering, non-linear oscillatory systems, canonical perturbation theory and vibrations of continuous systems. A special feature of this book is the inclusion of more than two hundred examples and worked problems. The second edition is thoroughly revised in particular the chapters on Special Theory of Relativity and Relativistic Mechanics are rewritten with the metric (1, -1, -1, -1). ... Read more

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This book considers the main hydrodynamic aspects of thedynamics of bubbles, drops and rigid particles with a special emphasison the deformations and hydrodynamic interactions between fluidparticles in uniform or shear flows and hydrodynamic interactionsbetween rigid spherical particles in an oscillatory flow. There is noother published book to date which reveals these topics in thedescribed manner.
Readers should have a basic understanding of introductory fluidmechanics, real analysis and numerical methods. The book provides thebasis for quantitative description of the phenomena that occur in thedynamics of bubbles, drops and rigid particles.
The book is intended to serve both as a graduate textbook for studentsin chemical engineering, physics and applied mathematics, and as areference monograph for academic and industrial researchers. ... Read more

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Perfect!
I've used this book as a basic of my Ph. D. work. It's written in very intelligiblestyle but also has a very good scientific value! I'm recommending the book to those who has been interested in fluid dynamics! ... Read more

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This book takes readers through all the steps necessary for solving hard problems in continuum mechanics with smooth particle methods. Pedagogical problems clarify the generation of initial conditions, the treatment of boundary conditions, the integration of the equations of motion, and the analysis of the results. Particular attention is paid to the parallel computing necessary for large problems and to the graphic displays, including debugging software, required for the efficient completion of computational projects. The book is self-contained, with summaries of classical particle mechanics and continuum mechanics for both fluids and solids, computer languages, the stability of numerical methods, Lyapunov spectra, and message-passing parallel computing. The main difficulties faced by meshless particle methods are discussed and the means of overcoming them are illustrated with worked examples. ... Read more

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Useful
I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in applying SPAM/SPH to problems in continuum mechanics. It is a great starting point from which to explore the expansive literature on this (relatively) new numerical technique.

The style is refreshingly clear and direct. Some readers may not like the simple mathematical notion (for example notation to differentiate rank of tensors is dispensed with in favour of the rank being implied), however I myself found that the equations were quite clear in the context of the accompanying text.

More of a journey than a reference, the book is littered with the beginnings of many mini, and not so mini research projects.

SPAM and sph, a superior route to continuum solutions
This excellent monograph, prepared by Professor Hoover with the help of his wife Carol, contains all that a reader needs to understand, develop, and use smooth-particle techniques for computer simulations of continua.Applications to solid deformation and to fluid flow display a variety of useful techniques for avoiding the usual pitfalls with standard sph. ... Read more

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FLUID AND PARTICLE MECHANICS by C. E. Lapple With the assistance of G. E. Alves, O. P. Bergelin, D. F. Boucher, H. L. Bunker, M. G. Kershaw, M. S. Maleson and R. D. Morse Based on a Graduate Chemical Engineering Course given at the University of Delaware Published by University of Delaware Newark, Delaware March, 1951 PREFACE It is the aim of this publication to provide industrial aryd academic organizations with a readily usable critical review of recent developments in the field of Fluid and Particle Jfechanics as they pertain to applications in the chemical industry. Progress during the past ten years has been extreme ly rapid. This is evidenced by the greatly accelerated pace of publication and by the pioneering of phases which heretofore had received but scant attention. Progress has indeed been so rapid that the practicing engineer has not had the time to usefully assimilate the results of the developments, because of. their diversity and scatter in the literature. In order to provide students and engineers in the Wilmington-Philadelphia area with a co-ordinated review of these developments and to stimulate their application in practice, the University of Delaware sponsored an extension course in Fluid Mechanics in the spring of 1948. The lectures were prepared and given by specialists from local industry, who were chosen for their experience and intimate famil iarity with specific aspects of fluid and particle mr-chanics in the chemical industry. The course dealt with special topics, which are of great or growing importance in the chemical industry and which are not adequately covered elsewhere. Although fundamental and theoretical background information was presented, this was done only to the extent deemed necessary for a thorough understanding of the methods and limitations of application. Insofar as possible, the emphasis was on the presentation of a clear, concise, and critical review of available knowledge that could be utilized directly in industrial applications. Because of the vastness of the field and the limited time available, the entire field could not receive coverage. The topics included were determined by their relative industrial importance, as well as by the availability of qualified lecturers. In order to provide those taking the course with a permanent record for reference, detailed mimeographed notes were prepared and distributed by each lecturer. These were prepared as a comprehensive but concise summary of available information, with sufficient selected reference material to permit an individual to conduct an extensive study of a given topic should the need arise. Because of the excellent reception of the course and the large number of requests for additional copies of the lecture notes, the University of Delaware has issued this Bulletin in order to make the information presented in the lectures more generally available. While the material represents a review of published material to a great extent, the co-ordination and interpretation of the results is in many cases novel, reflecting intuitive insight that comes with many years of specialized background and ex perience and with knowledge of unpublished information. It is our sincere hope that this publication will serve its immediate function as an aid to industry in summarizing recent developments in a usable form and that it will act as a guide and stimulus for further work in academic and industrial research organizations. It is also our hope that this publica tion will find extensive use in graduate courses as a means for bridging the proverbial academic industrial gap and thereby further one of the ends of professional education. To facilitate its classroom function in this respect, problems typical of those encountered in practice have been addended to each chapter. Wilmington, Delaware C. E. Lapple June, 1950 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1. Chapter 2. Chapter 3. Chapter 4. Chapter 5. Chapter 6. Chapter 7. Chapter 8. Chapter 9... ... Read more

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This book is a detailed presentation of the cooperativeresearch activity undertaken by 20 European teams to contribute to thedevelopment of Particle Image Velocimetry. This research was performedover a period of two years, in the frame of a EuropeanBrite--Euram contract and was greatly enhanced by itscooperative aspect. The book presents extensive comparisons of bothrecording and analysis of PIV images. A database has been built, whichis presented in detail and which is accessible via Internet.Industrial application in a large wind tunnel, validation ofup-to-date numerical predictions and new developments includingextension to 3C are also addressed in the different chapters of thisbook. In addition, 25 individual contributions are provided in theform of scientific papers which cover various aspects of thedevelopment of the method (PTV, video recording, stereo-PIV,holo-PIV). This book will be of interest to scientists and engineersactive in the field. ... Read more

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another point of view
It's different, is another point of view of quantum mechanics, for me is more easy and logical. ... Read more