Mechanics Book on 3-D Rigid Body Motion

[Sam_Goldberg]

Hi guys, I'm going to university this fall and am preparing this summer for the physics courses I will be taking. I have Kleppner and Kolenkow's mechanics book, and things were going smoothly until I hit the problems in chapter 7 on rigid body motion in three dimensions. In this chapter, topics such as gyroscopes, gyrocompasses, angular velocity and momentum, and the tensor of inertia were discussed. I'm really having a difficult time and I was wondering if anyone knew of a book of comparable difficulty that covered this topic in the same detail, but in a different way. Thanks.

 

[maverick_starstrider]

For physicists the standard mechanics text (which, by the way is a 2nd or 3rd year course so I wouldn't worry if you're swamped before you even start) is Goldstein's or Taylor's. Just go on amazon or the like and put in either of those last names and something like "Classical Mechanics" (I can't actually be bothered to remember their names. In physics we always refer to textbook by the last name of the authors because there are like 10 books called "Mathematical Method in the Physical Sciences" or some such)

 

[Daverz]

Don't be afraid to just skip it for now and come back to it later.

For a probably simpler treatment (I don't have K&K) which may help, see Newtonian Mechanics by French. I also like Anatlytical Mechanics by Fowles.