The best mechanics books from the bottom to the top + math

[Jakub]

Hey there,

there may be many threads about this problem, but I would want you to recommend me few books to read about mechanics from the bottom to the top. I mean, I don't have that much of a problem in calculus, but I'm not excellent in it either. So I would want a good textbook or bunch of textbooks which goes from the classic motion equations maybe to some advanced, Lagrangian like mechanics.

The best option here to recommend me would be a series of books (it doesn't need to be from the same author, but it's preferable in my opinion) from the basic mechanics to more advanced topics.

I'm really picky in terms of choosing a book for my study, so I often have a problem to choose.
Also, I would be really happy if you could include some maths books as well (pre-requisites for the physics).

Hope you'll help me! Thanks a lot...

 

[vanhees71]

My favorites are

Landau&Lifhitz vol. I (he, however, skips the "naive mechanics" part and right away starts from Hamilton's principle)
F. Scheck, Mechanics - From Newton's laws to deterministic chaos, Springer (2007)

A mathematically rigorous treatment can be found in

V. I. Arnold, Mathematical Methods of Classical Mechanics, Springer (1989)

 

[Jakub]

Landau&Lifhitz vol. I

Should I get a link for the certain books? Because I found several and can't decide which ones are the ones you mean.
Thanks a lot!

 

[vanhees71]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0750628960/?tag=pfamazon01-20

https://www.amazon.com/dp/3642053696/?tag=pfamazon01-20

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0387968903/?tag=pfamazon01-20

Before you buy any book, I recommend to visit a library at a university and look at them. Textbooks are quite expensive, and it's better to check beforehand, whether you like them or not!

 

[jtbell]

mechanics from the bottom to the top.

Can you be more explicit about what you mean by the "bottom?" Have you already studied physics at the introductory level using a calculus-based textbook like Halliday/Resnick, Young/Freedman, etc.?

 

[Jakub]

I'm sorry for that. It's more complicated in my case. The problem is, that I'm a student of the high school of electrical engineering and we had physics only in 1st and 2nd year. But it wasn't that good as you would expect... So I did a little bit of self study and learned about the physics concepts. What I'm missing the most is the mathematical interpretation of the subject. Of course there are many phenomenons that I didn't leaned about yet. That's the reason for "bottom to the top" sentence.

I would like to read a book where all of the high school physics is explained also with some essence of the calculus. I know about Halliday&Resnick but my collegues told me that it's too general. So what do I do now? What would you recommend to me? I would like to finally decide which book to read, because there are many and I don't have a clue.

Basicaly, my request is about physics book (so at the end maybe not only about mechanics, but I wanted to go one by one. Like, I mean, read some mechanics book, then thermodynamics and so on...) and also book with the mathematical apparatus naccessary for the physics. (I would be really happy, if I should start with the "real" physics, not the high school based physics.)

 

[vanhees71]

Given that situation, I'd also say the right type of book is Halliday, Resnick, Walker or Tipler. There are many other good books of this type. They are introductory university-physics books for the usual experimental course (consisting of mechanics, thermodynamics, classical electrodynamics, quantum mechanics, statistical physics).

Also, I strongly believe that the socalled "non-calculus textbooks/lectures" are not very useful at all. It's not by chance that Newton discovered classical mechanics in our modern sense, because he has been also discovered calculus (although finally Leibniz had the better notation ;-)). It's simply the most adequate language of physics, and indeed one has to learn it anyway. I've not too much overview about English-speaking math books, because I learned my math from German textbooks.

 

[jtbell]

If you want to try a somewhat higher level than Halliday & Resnick and its competitors, you might consider Kleppner & Kolenkow (which is or has been used for intro mechanics at MIT) or Morin (Harvard).

 

[smodak]

Savov

A long preview here

 

[robphy]

From my old reply to a similar question
www.physicsforums.com/threads/recommend-me-an-introductory-physics-textbook-that-is-more-theoretical.537541/#post-3544657,
here are some updated links:

Chabay & Sherwood's Matter and Interactions (Vol I and II)
https://matterandinteractions.org/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/111891449X/?tag=pfamazon01-20

Thomas Moore's Six Ideas that Shaped Physics series (C,N,R,E,Q,T)
http://www.physics.pomona.edu/sixideas/


These have interesting non-standard approaches to introductory physics.
They have a "bigger picture" in mind, compared to the standard Halliday&Resnick type textbooks.

 

[Jakub]

Thank you all for the answers! It helped a lot. I think I'll try to look at the Halliday and then if I won't like it that much I'll try the different ones.
But anyway, thanks a lot!

 

[The Bill]

Kleppner and Kolenkow was already mentioned, and I think it would be a good book for you to study next, or at least soon.

A more focused text at the same level as Halliday and Resnick is A.P. French's Newtonian Mechanics. You might find it useful, based on a few of your statements above:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393099709/?tag=pfamazon01-20...

 

[Jakub]

A Little bit late, but thanks to all who helped me out :).