Theoretical Mechanics of Particles and Continua (Dover Books on Physics) by Fetter, Alexander L., Walecka, John Dirk, Physics (2003) Paperback

by Alexander L. Fetter

This two-part text fills what has often been a void in the first-year graduate physics curriculum. Through its examination of particles and continua, it supplies a lucid and self-contained account of classical mechanics — which in turn provides a natural framework for introducing many of the advanced mathematical concepts in physics.
The text opens with Newton's laws of motion and systematically develops the dynamics of classical particles, with chapters on basic principles, rotating coordinate systems, lagrangian formalism, small oscillations, dynamics of rigid bodies, and hamiltonian formalism, including a brief discussion of the transition to quantum mechanics. This part of the book also considers examples of the limiting behavior of many particles, facilitating the eventual transition to a continuous medium.
The second part deals with classical continua, including chapters on string membranes, sound waves, surface waves on nonviscous fluids, heat conduction, viscous fluids, and elastic media. Each of these self-contained chapters provides the relevant physical background and develops the appropriate mathematical techniques, and problems of varying difficulty appear throughout the text.

Genres: Physics, Science, Textbooks

Paperback

First published February 1, 1980

Reviews

[WARDA AS' SAEEDI · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.
What I really like about this text that it is clear. There are not too many examples, but the few examples presented are complete and informative. The only problem that I faced that it doesn’t always explain everything in detail so you need to dig more in other resources and not only relay in that textbook.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are definitely a lot better books for learning classical mechanics. My issue with this book is how little explanations there are and there aren’t many good examples to work off of for doing the problems in the back of the textbook.

[Zach Ulibarri · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very readable, no bullshit introduction to continuum mechanics. Much more useful than the verbose and extremely formal Goldstein, Poole, and Safko that is the mainstay of graduate class mech classes.

You know that feeling when your ears pop after the plane has landed? How everything just feels so much better? That's about how I felt when we switched to this text from GPS midway through the semester.

[Jtall · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would swear on this book before speaking under oath.