Classical Mechanics

This book is awful.

This author's writing style is verbose and at times maddeningly mathematically obtuse. Many typos in the first edition were corrected in the second edition, however new typos were introduced in the second edition to compensate. Later chapters on Hamiltonians, Canonical Transformations, and Hamilton-Jacobi theory are particularly horrendous. The early chapter on the two-body central force problem is complete, however information here can be obtained in other superior volumes (Landau and Lifshitz, Danby Szebehely, etc.). Superior graduate classical mechanics texts can be found in Tabor, Scheck, and even Arnold. I'm sure there are other better volumes as well.

I once vowed never to open this book again, and nine times out show more of ten I regretted opening the book when breaking the vow. This will be the first book I burn if I ever need to stay warm if I ever can't pay the utility bill. show less

I'm parking this one because it doesn't cover what I need. I'm not rating it because it might be good or bad and I haven't read enough of it to judge. The fact that it assumes what I wanted to learn just means it isn't the book I need.

The first chapter presents a very austere but elegant exposition of the basic principles of Newtonian mechanics. It would probably not suit beginners but this isn't a book for beginners anyway. That's about all I can say.

Much too formal.