Newtonian Dynamics

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 336 pages
• Published by: McGraw-Hill Companies March 1, 1983
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0070030162
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0070030169
• Book Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.6 x 0.9 inches
• Weighs: 1.5 pounds

Reader Reviews
I think that this book provides an attractive answer to the question what purpose should an intermediate level course on Classical Mechanics serve? Introduce the reader to the ''Art of the Physicist''. A course on Classical Mechanics (where students are already familiar with most of the basic physical concepts) is an appropriate choice of vehicle to this end. Baierlein's book does as good a job of instructing one in the ''Art of the Physicist'' as can be expected of any text. He tackles systems of genuine physical interest (in which attention to orders of magnitude is important), makes extensive use of (generally applicable) approximate methods of solution and does not shy away from discussing qualitative lines of argumentation (such as dimensional analysis). He has also developed an essential adjunct to a text of this kind, namely a fairly extensive collection (unusual in books on Classical Mechanics at this level) of original and sometimes challenging problems. Not content with his efforts in the body of the book, the author even takes the brave step of attempting to delineate the ''Art of the Physicist'' in an appendix. Despite the unconventional character of his book, Baierlein is careful to cover all the topics usually found in intermediate level texts on Classical Mechanics. Those who want to be guided in detail through every step of a calculation will not enjoy this book and those who want more than a passing introduction to the Langrangian and Hamiltonian formulations of Classical Mechanics will have to look elsewhere (the book ''Introduction to Dynamics'' by I. Percival and D. Richards, although not designed for physicists, is a wonderfully succint, clear and pragmatic presentation). However, even for those ultimately more interested in such formal developments, Baierlein's book is a good place to start if only to whet the appetite. (As the title suggests, those interested in Special Relativity will also have to look elsewhere.) Perhaps conscious that the best physicists can make physics seem effortless, Baierlein's touch throughout the book is deliberately light. This makes the book eminently readable, but does have its drawbacks. There are no messy comparisons between the predictions of models and experimental data. Surely much of the ''Art of the Physicist'' is necessitated by the fact that tractable models are invariably imperfect descriptions of reality? The reader should be given a chance to develop an appreciation of when a model is adequate or should be improved upon (if at all possible). Also, although Baierlein introduces Lagrangian formalism early (in chapter 4), he does not make any reference to it in subsequent chapters. Admittedly he has entitled his book ''Newtonian Dynamics'', but a brief if somewhat technical comparison between Newtonian and Lagrangian treatments of, for example, Central Forces and Non-Inertial Frames (dealt with in chapter 5 and 6, respectively) would serve to bring out the elegance of the Lagrangian approach. Choosing the technique best suited to the task at hand and cross-checking results obtained by one method by rederiving them with another are among the arts of a physicist. Good texts on physics are few and far between. This is one of them. I hope that one day Professor Baierlein returns to this book to embellish it further. I would be interested to see how he treats the topic of deterministic chaos.