Any good ordinary classical mechanics books?

[Nanosuit]

I am studying for the mechanics modules of A level mathematics under EdExcel.So far the books seemingly published to support the specifications aren't doing a very good job.The examples in the books don't tell the students how to solve problems in the exercises, which is a sheer let down.I want to know if there are any good books that i can take help from.I don't mind books that may be too advanced or that may contain more info than required here so long as they met my needs.Here are the specs:Kinematics of a particle moving in a straight line or plane,centers of mass,work and energy, collisions, statics of rigid bodies,angular motion(from phy spec but also a part of mech, right? :P )

If you need to know the types of questions i need help for:http://www.edexcel.com/quals/gce/gce08/maths/pages/default.aspx

Thanks in advanced :)

 

[Simon Bridge]

The examples in the books don't tell the students how to solve problems in the exercises...

Well, no, they wouldn't. You are supposed to use the physics illustrated by the examples to solve the problems.
Mind you, I haven't seen them and some resources can be pretty bad. Have you checked to see how the others in your course are coping with the problem.

Here are the specs:Kinematics of a particle moving in a straight line or plane,centers of mass,work and energy, collisions, statics of rigid bodies,angular motion(from phy spec but also a part of mech, right? :P )

This is such a common request that I'm tempted just to write my own.
Anyway - for these subjects, you can find worked examples online easily enough.
In fact - googling for "edexcel worked examples" got me a whole lot of youtube videos.
Probably not worth paying for a new book.

"mech" = mechanics? it's a field in physics.
niggle: you write well - your work will read better if you put a space after all the punctuation marks that sit on the line ... look at how I have used spaces with punctuation in this reply for example.

 

[Nanosuit]

Well, no, they wouldn't. You are supposed to use the physics illustrated by the examples to solve the problems.
Mind you, I haven't seen them and some resources can be pretty bad. Have you checked to see how the others in your course are coping with the problem.

This is such a common request that I'm tempted just to write my own.
Anyway - for these subjects, you can find worked examples online easily enough.
In fact - googling for "edexcel worked examples" got me a whole lot of youtube videos.
Probably not worth paying for a new book.

I am self-taught.Others have tutors, so they don't face much problems.

The book has examples, actually 'example', on center of mass toppling problems but the exercises include problems that are tougher, like, 'an extra mass M is added to point C to help the lamina stay in equilibrium.Find the value of M'. The example shows how to do the math up to the toppling point but says nothing about how to tackle when the above sort of questions come in.

And thanks for the advice

 

[Simon Bridge]

I am self-taught. Others have tutors, so they don't face much problems.

Self teaching is tricky - you would be well advised to get a tutor of your own.

The book has examples, actually 'example', on center of mass toppling problems but the exercises include problems that are tougher, like, 'an extra mass M is added to point C to help the lamina stay in equilibrium.Find the value of M'. The example shows how to do the math up to the toppling point but says nothing about how to tackle when the above sort of questions come in.

That is pretty much what all textbooks do though: they provide exercises that vary the situation from the examples. You are supposed to use your understanding of the physics to work out what difference the variation makes. i.e. in your example, the extra mass may change the location of the center of gravity - maybe provide a counter-torque to the applied force. If you have understood the material on toppling objects over then you should realize that.

OTOH: the resources you are using are not designed for self-study - so there is nothing to redirect you if you don't understand the material. Thus you are doing the right thing looking for extra material to help you: a tutor would be able to tailor the material to suit you.

If you feel you learn well from worked examples then try something like:
http://www.solvephysics.com/

Attempt the problems before looking at the answers - when you see the answers, try to figure why they chose the method they did, and, where they had to make some assumptions, what clues were in the question that makes those assumptions reasonable.

 

[NumericalFEA]

... statics of rigid bodies...

Here is one devoted to statics of shells, with several examples, and, essentially, with lots of source codes in C/C++, that deliver numerical solutions. The book also contains analytical solutions of the same set of examples, so there is a lot to learn from comparing the two sets of solutions.


https://www.amazon.com/dp/0646594044/?tag=pfamazon01-20