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No-Nonsense Classical Mechanics: A Student-Friendly Introduction
Learning classical mechanics doesn’t have to be hard What if there was a way to learn classical mechanics without all the usual fluff? What if there were a book that allowed you to see the whole picture and not just tiny parts of it? Thoughts like this are the reason that No-Nonsense Classical Mechanics now exists. What will you learn from this book? No-Nonsense Classical Mechanics is the most student-friendly book on classical nechanics ever written. Here’s why. The primary focus on the readers’ needs is also visible in dozens of small features that you won’t find in any other textbook
392 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 1, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 21, 2022
Notes & Thoughts from Physics:
1. What is classical physics?
For anyone from non-physicist, background.
The way to look at Physics, at least from my perspective is that, we are describing the World.
So, many ways to describe the world, but we want to describe fundamental building blocks of reality, And How do we do it?
We use mathematical descriptions of these fundamental building blocks.
Basically, for Classical Physics:
Newton equation of motion in particles
Maxwell-Faraday theory of electromagnetic fields
Einstein’s general theory of relativity
a. What is the task of classical mechanics: Predict the future
In Classical laws of physics, it is deterministic - But, oh hey? There’s more to the story, so be patient, and more careful in your reading, understanding of the World.
b. System: Objects - particles, fields, waves
Author shares more examples on Dynamical laws.
Recall, one can call a system deterministic, if it is reversible.
c. Spaces, Trigonometry, Vectors:
This is quite fun to imagine, imagine yourself flying in space, how would you describe your location?
Ah, we need a co-ordinate space.
And then, we want to measure, how long it took?
So, we have time, there’s many type of units of it.
So, we want to describe angles?
We can capture the measurement, imagine, corner of your house.
And then what?
We precisely use trigonometric functions to speak about the corners.
Recall, Vectors, you can image it as a person, who has size, you know if I eat too much Dosai, I might become a bit wider. So, Vectors contain both direction and magnitude. And what do we do with it? We play with Vectors like little children playing with their toys to describe, solve problems.
We represent this in cartesian-coordinates or some space.
Recall, dot product, cross-product are ways to multiply Vectors.
And, Cross-product gives us Vector & Dot-Product gives us Scalars.
Dot-Product gives us magnitude of two vectors, and we have cosine that gives angle between them.
Motion:
How do we cope up with change?
How do we represent change mathematically?
We speak the language of calculus - Why?
To deal with continuous time,
Recall, continuous time, meaning, in a three-dimensional space, if you represent the time, it won’t have any breaks.
Lagrange Multiplier:
We want to find maximum or minimum of functions, that are subjects to constraints. In short, what we want to do is create a Lagrange function, and do partial derivative of x and y.
Invariance Transformation
We are wanting to switch co-ordinates,
Remember, invariance means, not changing, when done transformation of some kind.
Euler–Lagrange equation:
So, it’s a second-order partial differential equation, that gives stationary points of a given action function. Action function, gives us a scalar.
And why do we need this?
To find, maximum, minimum of optimization problems.
Covariance & Contra-variance:
We are wanting, covariance and contravariance, to show, how vectors from the coordinates change, when the axis of the co-ordinate space is changed.
So, we are wanting to do a transformation, from tensors, vectors, and this new transformation, that describes basis vectors combines with old transformation, is called co-variant transformation.
Active and Passive Transformation:
Passive transformation, we are wanting to describe the transformation, from two different co-ordinate space
Active transformation, we are wanting to describe transformation, using the same space.
Taylor Expansion
We are wanting to approximate a function - Okay?
And, we are wanting to approximate them as polynomials,
Recall polynomials are expression consisting of in-determinates and coefficients of a specific degree.
Vector Calculus:
Dot-Product: We get a scalar, in short, scalar product of two vectors gives us a projection of a vector into the axis, by a second vector. And, we have cos (theta) that gives angles between the two vectors.
So, if we have Dot-Product, as zero, what does that mean?
It means, perpendicular - Why?
Because, we have Cos (0), which is 1
Cross-Product:
We get a Vector, And we are doing a cross-product between two vectors, we get a Vector, which is perpendicular to area spanned by both vectors. And, we have sin (theta), that gives angle between two vectors here
Transformations
Recall, we have Fourier and Laplace transformations, that helps us to express, information from a function, in terms of how much each basic building block contributions.
Legendre transformation, we want to transform, functions from one type of quality into another type, and we use this to transform them.
Some more notes, thoughts
Author goes into basics in Calculus.
Quite interesting,
Classical Mechanics: We want to derive, solve equations of motions for a given system.
a) Author says, we describe newtonian formulation to keep track of objects using vectors in physical space
b) Lagrangian formulation, we describe a system using a path in configuration space
c) Hamiltonian formulation, we describe a system using a path in phase space
Basic Vocabulary:
Momentum:
We describe velocity of object multiplied times, the mass.
Rate of change of momentum is equal to force that acts upon it. Think of a Rocket starting from ground, we describe momentum as total oomph
Angular Momentum:
We describe it through cross product of position vector and momentum vector
We can describe any system, using any of these mathematical arenas.
Depending on your background, you might want to take some of these, in my understanding.
What we want is, understand basic vocabulary of physics - Why?
Because, that would be useful for engineering, researchers, scientists.
Now, what I am saying, to understand, that is all, and know, when, where, how to use them.
I suggest going through the work.
Deus Vult,
Gottfreid
1. What is classical physics?
For anyone from non-physicist, background.
The way to look at Physics, at least from my perspective is that, we are describing the World.
So, many ways to describe the world, but we want to describe fundamental building blocks of reality, And How do we do it?
We use mathematical descriptions of these fundamental building blocks.
Basically, for Classical Physics:
Newton equation of motion in particles
Maxwell-Faraday theory of electromagnetic fields
Einstein’s general theory of relativity
a. What is the task of classical mechanics: Predict the future
In Classical laws of physics, it is deterministic - But, oh hey? There’s more to the story, so be patient, and more careful in your reading, understanding of the World.
b. System: Objects - particles, fields, waves
Author shares more examples on Dynamical laws.
Recall, one can call a system deterministic, if it is reversible.
c. Spaces, Trigonometry, Vectors:
This is quite fun to imagine, imagine yourself flying in space, how would you describe your location?
Ah, we need a co-ordinate space.
And then, we want to measure, how long it took?
So, we have time, there’s many type of units of it.
So, we want to describe angles?
We can capture the measurement, imagine, corner of your house.
And then what?
We precisely use trigonometric functions to speak about the corners.
Recall, Vectors, you can image it as a person, who has size, you know if I eat too much Dosai, I might become a bit wider. So, Vectors contain both direction and magnitude. And what do we do with it? We play with Vectors like little children playing with their toys to describe, solve problems.
We represent this in cartesian-coordinates or some space.
Recall, dot product, cross-product are ways to multiply Vectors.
And, Cross-product gives us Vector & Dot-Product gives us Scalars.
Dot-Product gives us magnitude of two vectors, and we have cosine that gives angle between them.
Motion:
How do we cope up with change?
How do we represent change mathematically?
We speak the language of calculus - Why?
To deal with continuous time,
Recall, continuous time, meaning, in a three-dimensional space, if you represent the time, it won’t have any breaks.
Lagrange Multiplier:
We want to find maximum or minimum of functions, that are subjects to constraints. In short, what we want to do is create a Lagrange function, and do partial derivative of x and y.
Invariance Transformation
We are wanting to switch co-ordinates,
Remember, invariance means, not changing, when done transformation of some kind.
Euler–Lagrange equation:
So, it’s a second-order partial differential equation, that gives stationary points of a given action function. Action function, gives us a scalar.
And why do we need this?
To find, maximum, minimum of optimization problems.
Covariance & Contra-variance:
We are wanting, covariance and contravariance, to show, how vectors from the coordinates change, when the axis of the co-ordinate space is changed.
So, we are wanting to do a transformation, from tensors, vectors, and this new transformation, that describes basis vectors combines with old transformation, is called co-variant transformation.
Active and Passive Transformation:
Passive transformation, we are wanting to describe the transformation, from two different co-ordinate space
Active transformation, we are wanting to describe transformation, using the same space.
Taylor Expansion
We are wanting to approximate a function - Okay?
And, we are wanting to approximate them as polynomials,
Recall polynomials are expression consisting of in-determinates and coefficients of a specific degree.
Vector Calculus:
Dot-Product: We get a scalar, in short, scalar product of two vectors gives us a projection of a vector into the axis, by a second vector. And, we have cos (theta) that gives angles between the two vectors.
So, if we have Dot-Product, as zero, what does that mean?
It means, perpendicular - Why?
Because, we have Cos (0), which is 1
Cross-Product:
We get a Vector, And we are doing a cross-product between two vectors, we get a Vector, which is perpendicular to area spanned by both vectors. And, we have sin (theta), that gives angle between two vectors here
Transformations
Recall, we have Fourier and Laplace transformations, that helps us to express, information from a function, in terms of how much each basic building block contributions.
Legendre transformation, we want to transform, functions from one type of quality into another type, and we use this to transform them.
Some more notes, thoughts
Author goes into basics in Calculus.
Quite interesting,
Classical Mechanics: We want to derive, solve equations of motions for a given system.
a) Author says, we describe newtonian formulation to keep track of objects using vectors in physical space
b) Lagrangian formulation, we describe a system using a path in configuration space
c) Hamiltonian formulation, we describe a system using a path in phase space
Basic Vocabulary:
Momentum:
We describe velocity of object multiplied times, the mass.
Rate of change of momentum is equal to force that acts upon it. Think of a Rocket starting from ground, we describe momentum as total oomph
Angular Momentum:
We describe it through cross product of position vector and momentum vector
We can describe any system, using any of these mathematical arenas.
Depending on your background, you might want to take some of these, in my understanding.
What we want is, understand basic vocabulary of physics - Why?
Because, that would be useful for engineering, researchers, scientists.
Now, what I am saying, to understand, that is all, and know, when, where, how to use them.
I suggest going through the work.
Deus Vult,
Gottfreid
March 29, 2021
The way students want to meet classical mechanics
June 11, 2022
Really, really wonderful book that finally got me to self-study Classical Mechanics. Builds a solid foundation that makes other textbooks become less intimidating. The author is down-to-earth and extremely sympathetic to the not-so-experienced amateur, and it feels like I’ve made friends with a brilliant person through this book whilst learning good physics.
March 21, 2024
Συνεχίζοντας στο ταξίδι της επιστροφής στα βασικά, ολοκλήρωσα το 2ο βιβλίο του ιδίου συγγραφέα, μετά απ' αυτό της Κλασικής Μηχανικής και έχω να πω ότι είναι ένα ακόμα εξαιρετικό βιβλίο.
Στόχος του βιβλίου δεν είναι να λειτουργήσει σαν ένα textbook, αλλά σαν ένα εγχειρίδιο με επεξήγηση των βασικών concepts και με οδηγίες για το που να απευθυνθείς αν θες να εμβαθύνεις στην εκάστοτε ιδέα που πραγματεύεται κάθε κεφάλαιο.
Όπως λέει και ο τίτλος, είναι μια no-nonsense πραγματιστική προσέγγιση, όπως αρμόζει σε έναν Φυσικό. Υπάρχει σαφής διαχωρισμός μεταξύ των φυσικών φαινομένων και των μαθηματικών που τα περιγράφουν, διότι πολλές φορές χανόμαστε στα μαθηματικά μοντέλα και τείνουμε να προσπαθήσουμε να παραμορφώσουμε την πραγματικότητα ώστε να τη χωρέσουμε στα μαθηματικά που γνωρίζουμε και ξέρουμε να μεταχειριζόμαστε.
Από 'μένα είναι 4.5/5 και το συστήνω σε όλους!
Στόχος του βιβλίου δεν είναι να λειτουργήσει σαν ένα textbook, αλλά σαν ένα εγχειρίδιο με επεξήγηση των βασικών concepts και με οδηγίες για το που να απευθυνθείς αν θες να εμβαθύνεις στην εκάστοτε ιδέα που πραγματεύεται κάθε κεφάλαιο.
Όπως λέει και ο τίτλος, είναι μια no-nonsense πραγματιστική προσέγγιση, όπως αρμόζει σε έναν Φυσικό. Υπάρχει σαφής διαχωρισμός μεταξύ των φυσικών φαινομένων και των μαθηματικών που τα περιγράφουν, διότι πολλές φορές χανόμαστε στα μαθηματικά μοντέλα και τείνουμε να προσπαθήσουμε να παραμορφώσουμε την πραγματικότητα ώστε να τη χωρέσουμε στα μαθηματικά που γνωρίζουμε και ξέρουμε να μεταχειριζόμαστε.
Από 'μένα είναι 4.5/5 και το συστήνω σε όλους!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews