Textbook for Classical Mechanics

[ATR]

I am self studying Classical Mechanics and I am a bit confused about this. After reading Kleppner Kolenkow Mechanics can I read Symon's Mechanics or do I need to read anything in between like Fowels or Marion&Thornton? I already studied the Maths portion upto Multivariable Calculus,Real Analysis, Vector Analysis ODE and also PDE, Linear Algebra, Abstract Algebra. Just confused about the Physics. The books must follow a order so that I can really go deep into the conceptual part of Physics and problem solving also.
Then I want to read Goldstein, Landau and Arnold's book.
Any suggestions?

Thanks.
ATR.

 

[jtbell]

After reading Kleppner Kolenkow Mechanics can I read Symon's Mechanics or do I need to read anything in between like Fowels or Marion&Thornton?

Symon, Fowles & Cassiday and Marion & Thornton are at a similar level level (upper-level undergraduate), so you can use any of them after Kleppner & Kolenkow. It's basically a matter of personal preference.

I never taught that course myself, but a colleague used Marion & Thornton for many years. When I was an undergraduate, I used Fowles (an old edition before Cassiday came along), but that was long enough ago that I really don't remember much about it.

 

[ATR]

Thanks, but from my experience, Symon is a bit more advanced than the other two.

 

[ATR]

Also after Symon, I am planning to read Goldstein and then Landau or Arnold's book. Will Finn's Classical Mechanics be a good substitute for Goldstein? Or is Goldstein better? What I want is a typical textbook like treatment(but it should be clear, concise, conceptual and should have a collection of good problems) of Lagrangian and Hamiltonian.

Thanks.
ATR

 

[vanhees71]

Why Goldstein with its misleading treatment of anholonomous constraints (who knows what else is flawed). Landau&Lifshitz is very good. As all the volumes it treats the physics straight to the point. Arnold is about another subject, namely mathematical physics, and for that it's the best book concerning classical mechanics.

 

[ATR]

What about Finn's Classical Mechanics?

 

[Nguyen Son]

I haven't read Finn's book yet, but when I took Theoretical Mechanics (upper level of Classical Mechanics) course, my exercises-teacher (different from theory-teacher) told us to read and do exercises in Landau, Calkin and Finn's book, because they were very good books, but I just read Landau on theory class and did exercises in Calkin and Goldstein book, didn't have enough time to read Finn. So, just give it a try if you have enough time, the more that you read, the more things you will know ^^
And I see that you've asked about Lagrangian and Hamiltonian, that's Theoretical Mechanics. For Theoretical Mechanics, I recommend you to read some books (just recommend, it depends on you, your teacher, and maybe members in this 4rum):
1. Landau, one of the most famous book in this field. Concise, sometimes you will scratch your head all day long because you don't know why he could have this result. Then your teacher comes up and everything will be ok
2. Goldstein. For me, it's easier than Landau, but still hard, need time and effort.
3. Walter Greiner. He has written a lot of books from classical to modern, and he has written 2 books about classical mechanics, but I recommend you to read the one called Classical Mechanics: Systems of Particles and Hamiltonian Dynamics
4. Lagrangian and Hamiltonian Mechanics by M.G.Calkin. Nice and well-written book, most of my exercises were taken from this book
5. Analytical Mechanics by Hand & Finch. For me it's well-written too, but I see that it is not appreciated on Amazon
6. V.I.Arnold. It's hard for me but it will be ok if you have a very good mathematical background.
Whatever books you read, you still need to spend a lot of time and effort.
Good luck and try your best

 

[ATR]

Thanks to all.