Next Direction in Advanced Mechanics?

[cmmcnamara]

Hi all,

I am currently pursuing a BS in Mechanical Engineering at Cal Poly Pomona and I have a few questions regarding some personal direction in the study of mechanics, mostly around the area of dynamics and systems.

In order to graduate from CPP with a BS in ME the only considerations for dynamics are a thorough knowledge of 2D mechanics and systems and a very limited one of those in the 3D case. However I tend to do a lot of additional study on my own which sometimes wanders into graduate school territory.

I've been looking lately a lot of advanced methods for mechanical analysis such as Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics but I also realize I'm quite a ways from really understand what is going on (even mathematically) with those methods. So I am curious if someone could point me in the right direction for some books I could self-study leading to those more advanced topics. I currently have an excellent grasp on analytic calculus methods and differential equation applications (ODE's only) but there also seems to be a need to understand something calculus of variations which I am not familiar with.

So can anyone recommend some books or study sites? I am not opposed to purchasing textbooks either, knowledge comes at a cost.

 

[chiro]

Hey cmmcnamara and welcome to the forums.

I have this book myself, and it covers a lot of the stuff you are mentioning while going very deep into the more advanced topics as well as issues regarding chaotic systems:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0201657023/?tag=pfamazon01-20

If you can get a table of contents, you should decide whether this suits your needs.