Mathematical Methods of Classical Mechanics (Graduate Texts in Mathematics)
September 9, 2010 by admin
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Mathematical Methods of Classical Mechanics (Graduate Texts in Mathematics)
In this text, the author constructs the mathematical apparatus of classical mechanics from the beginning, examining all the basic problems in dynamics, including the theory of oscillations, the theory of rigid body motion, and the Hamiltonian formalism. This modern approch, based on the theory of the geometry of manifolds, distinguishes iteself from the traditional approach of standard textbooks. Geometrical considerations are emphasized throughout and include phase spaces and flows, vector
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Review by for Mathematical Methods of Classical Mechanics (Graduate Texts in Mathematics)
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Written by a great mathematician of our time, Vladimir Arnol’d, this truly outstanding book represents classical mechanics from a unifying geometrical point of view and is a “must-to-read” book for any graduate student working in the field. Proofs are wonderfully clear and concise, problems are refreshingly stimulating, ideas are beautifully intuitive. Buy this book now and you will get a long time good friend and teacher!
Review by Professor Joseph L. McCauley for Mathematical Methods of Classical Mechanics (Graduate Texts in Mathematics)
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Extremely stimulating, uses Galileo to motivate Newton’s laws instead of postulating them. Treatment of Bertrand’s theorem is beautiful, but contains one error (took me 2 years before I realized where..). However, I know of only one physicist who successully worked out all the missing steps and taught from this book. I know mathematicians who have cursed it. I used/use it for inspiration. The treatment of Liouville’s integrability theorem, I found too abstract, found the old version in Whittaker’s Analytical Dynamics to be clearer (Arnol’d might laugh sarcastically at this claim!)–for an interesting variation, but more from the standpoint of continuous groups, see the treatment in ch. 16 of my Classical Mechanics (Cambridge, 1997). In my text I do not restrict the discussion of integrability/nonintegrability to Hamiltonian systems but include driven dissipative systems as well. Another strength of Arnol’d: his discussion of caustics, useful for the study of galaxy formation (as I later learned while doing work in cosmology). Also, I learned from Arnol’d that Poisson brackets are not restricted to canonical systems (see also my ch. 15). I guess that every researcher in nonlinear dynamics should study Arnol’d's books, he’s the ‘alte Hasse’ in the field.
Review by Janosch Lenzi for Mathematical Methods of Classical Mechanics (Graduate Texts in Mathematics)
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Best book on CM (based most on symplectic formulation). Extremely clear if one has enough patience to follow exactly the author’s way and to work out the proposed stimulating problems. Contains an original way of introducing differential forms, integration of differential forms and homology/De Rahm’s thm.: you fully get in the subject in few pages ! The first part does not make use of symplectic formalism but is also quite original and stimulating. The level is last yr. undergr. 1st yr. graduate. Very useful if used with E. ott (Chaos in Dynamical Systems) for studying nonlinear dynamics.
Review by Francesco Pedulla for Mathematical Methods of Classical Mechanics (Graduate Texts in Mathematics)
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Arnold shines for clarity, completeness and rigour. But, at the same time, he requires a remarkable intellectual effort on the part of the reader (at least a physicist or an engineer). Some readers might see this as a book of math rather than physics, but that would not be fair: Arnold always stresses the geometrical meaning and the physical intuition of what he states or demonstrates. You can take full advantage from the effort of reading this book only if you master a wide range of mathematical topics: essentially differential geometry, ODEs and PDEs and some topology. That’s not always true for engineer or physics students at the beginning graduate level. For that kind of readers, Goldstein is a much better fit. Arnold can (and maybe should) be read afterwards.
On the other hand, the exercises, although not very numberous, are very well conceived and help a lot to deepen the comprehension of the text. Also, the order of the topics is linear and very effective from a didactic point of view. The exposition is clear, concise and always goes straight to the point. Thanks to these features, it is one of the most effective books for self-teaching I ever happened to read.
From a physical point of view, the domain of applications is essentially limited to discrete systems. Furthermore, the electromagnetism and relativity are not even cited, although they can be viewed as the logical completion of classical mechanics (see, for example, Goldstein). But the extreme generality of the approach largely balance the more restricted physical domain. In my opinion, the best book you can read on the topics.
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I approached reading this book with a certain amount of trepidation. I thought that like with many mechanics books, I will be forced to put it down after page three because the struggle of continuing is too onerous. Surprising, I have gotten past chapter 5 and wish to continue. In other words Arnold does not expect too much from the reader. Contains some formal proofs but not enough dull you interest in the subject. Also unlike many mechanics books it is not filled with endless pompous writing (e.g Goldstein, and Salatan ) but gets directly to the point. Also I like the way the problems are presented. After every couple of paragraphs a problem (of not too great of difficulty) is given for the reader to try. This promotes reinforcement of the subject material. Some of the solutions are given and I only wish I had them all. In short the best advanced classical mechanics book I have come across.