Recommend books about classical mechanics please

[Santiago24]

Hi! i need some textbooks recommendations to learn by my self about classical mechanics in a undegraduate level. I don´¨¨t know what kind of math is required, i have knowledge about calculus by my high school classes and i learned more with the book "Calculus" by Gilbert Strang. I wait for your recommendations. :)

 

[mpresic3]

The first volume of Resnick and Halliday are good, and the one I am most familiar with. I have taught recitation sections that used Resnick in Halliday throughout the early 80's. I thumbed through Knight, and also Giancoli's physics books and find them good also.
Resnick and Halliday and the other textbooks of that type are gentle in their calculus requirement, in that they assume a concurrent course in calculus.

If you are confident in your math, and are looking for a intermediate (i.e. junior-senior) year university textbook which is more advanced, and dedicated to the study of mechanics alone, then I like Symon, Mechanics, or Marion/Thornton Mechanics of (something like particles and systems). These books are more demanding in the mathematics they assume.

Personally, I feel why rush things. Reading Resnick /Halliday or Knight for mechanics is a good introduction that will motivate you to study further if needed.

 

[andresB]

In order of least to higher difficulty

Old editions of Halliday-Resnick.
Alonso & Finn
Kleppner - Kolenkow

Special mention to Newtonian mechanics by French.

 

[AndreasC]

Yeah, I agree Kleppner-Kolenkow is good. But if you want something more advanced there is also John Taylor's book. It definitely covers a lot more advanced stuff than the other books but I feel like it is clear enough that even if you have the basic math background but haven't been exposed to anything beyond Newton's laws, you'll get something out of it. When I started reading it I didn't even really understand calculus which was silly in hindsight but I actually did learn some things that stayed with me.

 

[Dr Transport]

Schaums outline in Lagrangian Dynamics

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0070692580/?tag=pfamazon01-20

 

[Keith_McClary]

Free Physics Books

 

[vanhees71]

Landau&Lifshitz vol. 1. Without much ado Hamilton's principle from the beginning ;-)).

 

[AndreasC]

Landau&Lifshitz vol. 1. Without much ado Hamilton's principle from the beginning ;-)).

LOL well it's a great book but if you know the subject already. Otherwise it's pretty difficult, like all LL books.

 

[Santiago24]

LOL well it's a great book but if you know the subject already. Otherwise it's pretty difficult, like all LL books.

Thanks, in that case i´ m going to check it after read the others books.

 

[atyy]

As a supplement to say Halliday-Resnick or Kleppner-Kolenkow, you can browse through the first part of the Feynman lectures (they are elementary and full of insight, but hard to understand if you haven't had mechanics before)
https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/

 

[AndreasC]

Thanks, in that case i´ m going to check it after read the others books.

Bear in mind that LL is written at a graduate level. It's not really an undergrad book. If you are advanced you can read it but many people would argue that John R Taylor which I suggested is too advanced for someone who hasn't been exposed to university mechanics before (I disagree but I see their point), but LL is, like, 5 steps higher than that. Very terse, very succinct, amazing if you already know the subject at an advanced level (because it skips all the basic parts and the crutches), but if you don't you'll just be confused probably.

If I were to rank them based on difficulty, at the bottom level you have Halliday-Resnick, then Kleppner-Kolenkow, then Taylor, then Goldstein, and then LL (bear in mind that LL has less material than Goldstein, it's just that Goldstein being a much larger book is less terse). The last two are graduate level books, more advanced than what a uni undergrad would normally be expected to read.

 

[MidgetDwarf]

I would say the best books to learn intro physics from, are Alonso and Finn: Fundamental University Physics. It is closer to Kleppner and Kolenkow, but not as difficult (problem wise), and you can still reference it years later. It does not skimp on the calculus, and almost everything I derived. The only bad part, is that the book has been out of print for some years now. The copy that is available now Alonso/Finn: Physics, has taken out parts of the original second book, and more than half of the third book.

The good thing, is that you are from Uruguay, so I am assuming you can read Spanish very well. So Spanish copies of Alonso and Finn: Fundamental University Physics can be had for cheap. Moreover, if you need an English version, I believe the copyright has expired, so you can legally download it. (I think).