Mechanics Book for self-teaching

[unixunited]

I'm a Computer Science major and need 16 hours of science, so I'm going to take 8 hours of Chemistry, and 8 hours of Physics (the rote learning in Biology was killing me).

The physics classes are Mechanics and Electricity (designed for engineering students). I have a high interest in Physics as I have been reading Stephen Hawking books, it is all quite fascinating.

Does anyone have any superb recommendations for a mechanics book to learn on my own before entering the class? I prefer to teach myself a subject first, books are the best way for me to learn.

I've looked at Goldstein's Classical Mechanics, it looks pretty good. Would it be a good choice?

 

[fss]

Goldstein is an upper-undergraduate/first-year graduate level introduction to Classical Mechanics. If you have never done any kind of physics before, you are likely not going to learn much of anything from it.

 

[Frimus]

"Classical Mechanics" by R.D.Gregory might be a good choice for you.

 

[contramundum]

Most of the first-year physics courses for engineering students would use something like University Physics by Young and Freedman. You could also try An Intro to Mechanics by Kleppner and Kolenkow.

 

[Daverz]

French, Newtonian Mechanics.

 

[hitmeoff]

If this is going to be like freshman level mechanics, then I've always liked Serway and Jewett. Young and Feedman as someone else suggested is good too and of course Halliday and Resnick would work. All three basically teach the same stuff the same way, it just comes down to whose writing you like best.

For a junior level course, I would definitely go with Taylor, your best best for learning theoretical mechanics on your own. Thornton and Marion (the other junior level standard) is good as a reference, definitely not good as a self-learning book.

 

[unixunited]

Thanks all for the good advice.

French, Newtonian Mechanics.

I will definitely be getting this one, I actually stumbled across it while looking at some of the other suggestions and it seems extremely interesting and looks to be a good source for self-teaching. I may also end up with another one of the suggested texts, thanks again.