No-Nonsense Classical Mechanics: A Student-Friendly Introduction

If u are a beginner, an intermediate or even an enthusiast, pls go for it. It's very much user-friendly. And thank me later ;)

This book has been written with brutal honesty and humility. I enjoyed this book very much. It is for beginners in true sense. However, there is no lack of mathematical rigor. 1) Calculations are detailed, not the usual - an exercise for the student. 2) Side notes are very useful, not the usual - refer to section such and such - but the stuff is written (no flipping pages and searching) 3) Equations are cited with equations, not the usual- Eq. 5.12 - It leaves you flipping pages for no reason 4) All the doubts that generally come to mind (which may be too obvious to some - never to me) have been discussed in the text or side notes, it's very very good 5) Mathematical methods in the appendix is not only sufficient but also interesting compared to Math Methods Books 6) There are some printing errors (quite understandable, as it's only a year old) 7) Downside for me - In India, Indian print is not available, only the international print. [Goldstein costs Rs.700 and this book Rs.2500 (costly)]

Having learnt basic Newtonian Mechanics up to high school, I thought of exploring relativity and quantum mechanics. But, the same cannot be achieved without having a grasp of Principle of Least Action, thereby leading to other formalisms of mechanics. I started reading some books on classical mechanics for a firm grasp on these concepts and even watched a few videos. But, I could get a hold on these topics only after I laid hands on this superbly written book. It explains the concepts in such a lucid way as if the author is directly communicating with you. For a beginner, this is the best book.

If you want to understand core concepts of classical mechanics, this book is for you. This book is even accessible to high school students.

Jacob has done a great job! His writing is lucid and clear. He has explained many concepts of classical mechanics in extraordinary way. The book contains lots of figure to aid the concept more effectively!

My background: I'm a current PhD Physics entrant, in India. I have a working/textbook idea (basic problem solving) of the famous formalisms of classical mechanics (Newtonian, Lagrangian and Hamiltonian). But have a rather weak understanding of the formalisms and the deeper meaning. What this book claims to achieve, and does so perfectly: First of all, the language is simple without any compromise of physical rigor. The author takes a physics-first approach throughout, without killing the necessary mathematics. It gives a deeper understanding of the fundamentals of various formalisms. (The Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formalisms have been covered in super depths, conveying clearly the ideas and motivations.) It does not take for granted the reader's familiarity with any topic including basic calculus. (But a little previous exposure will come in greatly handy, in my opinion) It introduces other lesser known formalisms/ideas (Koopman von Neuman, Hamilton-Jacobi and Liouville theorem from a statistical mechanics perspective) in passing, but correctly so. The idea of symmetry (Noether's theorem) is introduced in a crystal clear manner and lays the foundation for the latter part of the book which explains the origins of classical mechanics (especially the least action principle) from more fundamental theories (Special relativity, general relativity and path intergral formalism of quantum mechanics). And all of it explained beautifully that even a high school student can gain strong insights. What it does not claim to do (and does not do): It is not a problem filled book! The applications of ideas are kept to a bare minimum. (Although, included are few classic examples of how to approach an application using a given formalism.) For solving problems and more conventional routes of learning, the author has added a set of excellent references in the book. Note: There are some typos occasionally, but nothing too dramatic that you can't follow or correct for yourself. The author has a website (link provided in the book) and is constantly notified by readers regarding such typos and misprints. Best part is the author takes the feedback seriously and updates the book regularly. The author also has Electrodynamics, Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Field Theory books which run on the same vein as this one and equally exceptional. I felt that with prior basic exposure to the subjects, one can master the essentials of these books in less than a week each. Definitely more learning in a week than in 5 years of an average Indian University. Happy reading.