No-Nonsense Classical Mechanics: A Student-Friendly Introduction by Jakob Schwichtenberg (PDF)

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Learning classical mechanics doesn’t have to be hardWhat if there was a way to learn classical mechanics without all the usual fluff? What if there were a book that allowed you to see the whole picture and not just tiny parts of it?Thoughts like this are the reason that No-Nonsense Classical Mechanics now exists.What will you learn from this book?Get to know all fundamental mechanics concepts — Grasp why we can describe classical mechanics using the Lagrangian formalism, the Newtonian formalism, or the Hamiltonian formalism and how these frameworks are connected.Learn to describe classical mechanics mathematically — Understand the meaning and origin of the most important equations: Newton’s second law, the Euler-Lagrange equation and Hamilton’s equations.Master the most important classical mechanics systems — Read fully annotated, step-by-step calculations and understand the general algorithm we use to describe them.Get an understanding you can be proud of — Learn about beautiful and deep insights like Noether’s theorem or Liouville’s theorem and how classical mechanics emerges in a proper limit of special relativity, quantum mechanics and general relativity.No-Nonsense Classical Mechanics is the most student-friendly book on classical nechanics ever written.Here’s why.First of all, it’s nothing like a formal university lecture. Instead, it’s like a casual conservation with a more experienced student. This also means that nothing is assumed to be “obvious” or “easy to see”.Each chapter, each section, and each page focuses solely on the goal to help you understand. Nothing is introduced without a thorough motivation and it is always clear where each equation comes from.The book contains no fluff since unnecessary content quickly leads to confusion. Instead, it ruthlessly focuses on the fundamentals and makes sure you’ll understand them in detail.The primary focus on the readers’ needs is also visible in dozens of small features that you won’t find in any other textbookIn total, the book contains more than 100 illustrations that help you understand the most important concepts visually.In each chapter, you’ll find fully annotated equations and calculations are done carefully step-by-step. This makes it much easier to understand what’s going on. Whenever a concept is used that was already introduced previously there is a short sidenote that reminds you where it was first introduced and often recites the main points. In addition, there are summaries at the beginning of each chapter that make sure you won’t get lost.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐The ONLY classical mechanics book I’ve ever read that truly builds the subject from the ground up.

⭐I am writing this review after reading this book and the Quantum Mechanics book from cover to cover. I wanted to write a review after reading all the No-Nonsense series books from cover to cover. But I noticed that my opinion of this series will not change by further reading.They say about a novel that it should move your heart, stimulate your mind, and touch your soul. Otherwise it is not a novel.Very unfortunately, we have long forgotten that this lesson should also apply to physics (and other science) books.The No-Nonsense Series gives a rap on the knuckles of graduate text book writers to wake up to this age-old dictum.Every page of the two books in this series I read from cover to cover stimulated my heart, mind, and soul.Why?Because on every page I saw not only equations but, more importantly, connections between various perspectives, aspects, and even fields of physics. I cannot say anything more because the rest is details which more learned people than me have already expressed.Since a few years I am noticing a trend in physics books where a new breed of Young Turks are appearing on the horizon of science, like Huns on the horizons of Rome, and telling the academic establishment that if you cannot deliver good stuff then we will.Most of these Young Turks are unknown, and have no influence or positions in the academic world, like the writer of the book reviewed.To me this is a great paradigm shift which will in the long run bring Nobel Prizes in Physics to outsiders who have nothing to do with the academic world.”Outside writers” today, “Outside Nobel Prize Winners tomorrow” – this seems to be the paradigm shift, at least to me.

⭐Before reading this book, I read Susskind’s Classical Mechanics. Schwichtenberg’s discussion of Angular Momentum seemed to me to be much clearer.Both books were comparable in terms of phase space and configuration space discussions. Schwichtenberg, on the other hand, provided a useful summary of these areas. On page 57, you’ll notice that he mentions the following:- Classical mechanics in physical space is what we call the Newtonian formulation- Classical mechanics in configuration space is what we call the Lagrangian formulation- Classical mechanics in phase space is what we call the Hamiltonian formulationIn terms of exercises, I believe Susskind’s book is superior; Schwichtenberg’s book lacks exercises.To achieve mastery, one should not stop here after finishing either Schwichtenberg’s or Susskind’s (or both). After that, it’s probably best to try Morin’s and then Goldstein’s.

⭐This is an excellent book to help deepen understanding of variational mechanics. One can certainly learn something from this book as a first exposure to CM, but you will learn much more if you have read something like Taylor first. There are not many examples in the book and no exercises. Having some familiarity with the material and having worked problems at this level previously will augment the learning experience from this book. The best part of the book was at the very end where he explains why there is that minus sign in the Lagrangian (L = T – V). Taylor mentions it, but just states he doesn’t know why it is there. It just works. Schwichtenberg shows how it arises from relativity. Very impressive explanation.

⭐I agree with the favorable remarks made by the six previous reviewers: This is a useful book for anyone who is learning for the first time or who is going back to re-acquaint themselves with what they used to know. In contrast to most of the standard texts in this formal subject, the author has managed to convey his personality and philosophy of teaching with a sense of humor. This is reinforced by his generous use of figures/diagrams and by the wide margins that let his annotations (and the reader’s own scribbled notes) be located just where they belong. I admire the design and production of the book: It lies open easily at the selected page. The typography and the page layout generate a text with enough white space to let the reader relax and mull over the ideas being presented. (I’m writing here about the paperback version of the book; I’m guessing that the Kindle version would not be as friendly) As others have pointed out, Schwichtenberg’s book lacks the problem sets needed to be the only text for a university course. However, the price is so modest and the content is so enlightening that should be strongly recommended.

⭐This book does a great job at explaining classical mechanics to beginners. The author remembers the challenges he encountered when learning the subject and thus is in an ideal position to teach beginners. His style is engaging and enthusiastic; the book almost reads like a novel!Compared to Susskind’s “The Theoretical Minimum” (Vol. 1 on classical mechanics), another great book, Schwichtenberg’s book goes further and into more details. Even if you have read and understood the TTM books, I recommend reading this book. In particular chapter 7 (on point transformations, gauge transformations, and canonical transformations), chapter 11 (on Hamilton-Jacobi mechanics, statistical mechanics, and Koopman-von Neumann mechanics), and chapter 12 (on the origins of classical mechanics) provide valuable additional information.I also have the author’s earlier book “Physics from Symmetry”. Compared to PfS, this book is much easier to read. The explanations are more detailed, step-by-step, and sometimes multiple perspectives are presented.

⭐There are a lot of things that I like about this book. It has been written in an optimistic, enthusiastic, conversational style and this works quite well most of the time. At the heart of the book is the author’s philosophy that you need to consider different formulations and descriptions of classical mechanics if you want to understand other fundamental aspects of modern physics. So this is not simply a description of Newtonian physics. You are taken through mechanics based on Newtonian, Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulations and he doesn’t waste much time getting you to that point. One of the interesting features of the book is that the diagrams are hand-drawn – the author describes this as an idiosyncratic feature of the book. Sometimes this works OK, but for many complex illustrations it tends to look a bit messy. None of the illustrations are given a figure number nor do they have legends. But the author provides lots of explanatory annotations in the margin which I think works really well. An Appendix that explains important aspects of calculus and other mathematical tools, such the Taylor expansion, is given at the back of the book.There seems to be an ever increasing number of physics and maths books that aim to reach us in a ‘non nonsense’ way. Unfortunately many aspects of physics and maths are difficult to understand and getting to a point of good understanding is a bit like learning to play a musical instrument. What helps is when your teacher really wants to explain it to you because he/she can remember how excited they were when they found a route and a process for understanding it themselves. Although this book is not perfect, it gives you something like that.

⭐I strongly recommend this book not just to beginners in classical mechanics but also to those who already think they understand the subject. The treatment is fresh and lively, and subtle concepts are explained very well theoretically and with simple supporting examples that make concrete the theory. I especially like the treatment of symmetry and the explanation of active and passive transformations. Great care is taken with notation to ensure that different functions are denoted by different symbols where appropriate, even if they are equal in value. Physicists are sometimes sloppy on this point, leading to great confusion. Great book! Well done to the author.

⭐It’s always good to have access to several sources when studying. This is a good supplement to other texts. It is not suitable as a stand-alone text as it does not have examples/exercises.

⭐Il libro è semplicemente fantastico. Da aspirante ingegnere, avevo lottato tanti anni fa con il durissimo esame di meccanica razionale e pur con un 30 lode, mi rendo conto che avevo imparato a risolvere problemi, non a cogliere l’essenza dei concetti. Questo è proprio quello che il libro fornisce e il tutto con una chiarezza che non avevo mai trovato in testi di fisica anche introduttivi. Un altro aspetto notevole è la totale mancanza dei famigerati ‘da cui si vede facilmente’ e simili, che fanno perdere allo studente un’infinità di tempo a scapito dello studio utile.Provato questo, ho comprato altri testi dell’autore per il piacere di imparare cose per me nuove (come la teoria quantistica dei campi) leggendo testi che danno l’impressione di avere accanto un insegnante che ti guida passo passo.

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⭐Jakob Schwichtenberg hat auf dem Gebiet der Physik promoviert und ist Mitarbeiter am Institut für Technologie der Universität Karlsruhe. Er ist Autor von ‘Physics from Symmetries‘ (Springer) und Herausgeber der No-Nonsense Buchreihe, die das Ziel verfolgt, Studenten freundliche wissenschaftliche Text zu veröffentlichen – insbesondere zur Physik.Mit dem vorliegende Buch, präsentiert der Autor seine No-Nonsense Variante der Klassischen Mechanik. Wie er im Vorwort erörtert, ist die Zahl der Lehrbücher zu diesem Thema zwar Legion, aber dieses ist insofern einzigartig, da es sich strikt auf die Grundlagen konzentriert. Entsprechend der Philosophie des Autors, die er in ‘Teach Yourself Physics‘ ausführlicher erläutert, ist theoretische Physik an sich einfach, solange sie die Fundamente betrifft, kompliziert werden in der Regel die Anwendungen der Theorien, insbesondere wenn sie ‘real world‘ Beispiele betreffen. Andererseits schreckt der Autor vor Ausführlichkeit nicht zurück, Definitionen und Basisformeln werden, wenn sie benutzt werden, oft wiederholt oder wenigsten referenziert, Ableitungen und Rechnungen in der Regel mit allen Zwischenschritten und Details dargestellt. Floskel ‘wie leicht zu sehen ist …‘ oder ‘trivialerweise gilt …‘ sind, entsprechend der Intensionen der Buchserie, tabu.Die Themenauswahl folgt gängigen Darstellungen, nach einer kurzen Einführung der Grundbegriffe, wendet sich der Autor im ersten Teil ohne viel Umschweife den drei Formulierungen der klassischen Mechanik zu: der Newtonschen Mechanik, sowie der Lagrangeschen und Hamiltonischen Formulierung. Dabei wird das Wirkungsprinzip, wiewohl ein wenig mittels geometrischer Optik motiviert, am Ende einfach konstatiert, insbesondere die T-V Form des Lagrangians.Im zweiten Teil werden die ‘Werkzeuge‘ besprochen, die im Rahmen der drei Formulieren der Mechanik zum Einsatz kommen. Zwangsbedingungen werden im Kontext der Lagrangschen Zugangs kurz angesprochen und dienen als Motivierung für Punkttransformationen und verallgemeinerte Koordinaten. Recht ausführlich werden schließlich kanonische Transformationen eingeführt, d.h. jene Transformationen, die die Hamiltionische ‘Struktur‘ erhalten. Abschließend demonstriert der Autor diese Werkzeuge (Tools) an zwei Beispielen: dem Harmonischen Oszillator und dem Pendel – den beiden einzigen Ausnahmen hinsichtlich Anwendungen in diesem Buch.Schließlich behandelt der letzte Teil einige fortgeschrittenere Themen. Angefangen mit dem Noetherschen Theorem, das den essentiellen Zusammenhang zwischen Symmetrien und Erhaltungsgrößen herstellt, dieses wird in Hamiltonischer und Lagranscher Form diskutiert. Ferner werden zwei weitere Formulierungen der Klassischen Mechanik skizziert, die Hamiltion Jacobi Theorie und die Formulierung von Koopman und von Neumann, die eine Art Schulterschluss zur Quantenmechanik darstellt. Anschließend verliert der Autor einige Worte zum Ursprung und der Geschichte der klassische Mechanik, sowie zu ihren Relationen zu andern Gebieten der Physik.Wie Schwichtenberg selbst anführt, kann und soll der vorliegende Text kein Ersatz für eine der gängigen Einführungen zu diesem Thema sein, aber das Buch hat seine Besonderheiten, die vielleicht gerade für Einsteiger interessant sind. Das trifft u.a. für den Übergang vom Langrangschen zum Hamiltonischen Bild zu: Physiker betrachten in der Regel ‘Größen‘, die dabei zugrundeliegenden Variablen wechseln dabei von Fall zu Fall bei Bedarf, ggf. implizit, etwa durch die Betrachtung der vollständigen Differential dieser Größen, das ist für Anfänger mit unter schwer nachvollziehbar – der Autor hat sich hier in der Tat besondere Mühe gegeben, mittelbare Funktionen klar herauszustellen und die Ableitungen mit vielen Einzelheiten transparent werden zu lassen.An einigen Stellen erscheint die Darstellung ein wenig umständlich, etwa werden zur Bestimmung von Variationen Taylorentwicklungen benutzt, um dann die Terme erster Ordnung zu isolieren, eine Differentiation nach dem Variationsparameter wäre einfacher und klarer. Auch ist der Grundsatz ‘principles first, and only simple examples‘ sicher nur für Studieneinsteiger, die sich einen raschen Eindruck von dem Gebiet verschaffen wollen, akzeptable – denn in der Regel gewinnen in der Physik Theorien erst durch ihre Anwendung an Substanz. Das Paradebeispiel ist Newtons Principia – erst Newtons Nachweis, dass seine Prinzipien der Mechanik Keplers Planetengesetze reproduzieren konnten, zeigte den Wert seiner Theorie – insbesondere im Vergleich zu Descartes Naturphilosophie, mit ihren ad hoc Behauptungen und rein qualitativen Behauptungen.Dank des großzügigen Seitenformats, benutzt der Autor recht breite Seitenränder, die aber gelegentlich auch mit beiten Formeln oder Grafiken überschrieben werden, um dort komfortabel Anmerkungen zum Text unterzubringen. Leider wirkt das Seitenlayout unruhiger als notwendig, denn obwohl der Text offenbar in LaTeX verfasst wurde, wird Flattersatz verwendet.Von diesen Kleinigkeiten abgesehen, ist das Buch sicher eine wertvolle Bereicherung für alle, die sich gründlich mit der Materie beschäftigen möchten. Eine moderate Bibliographie enthält Hinweise auf weiterführende Literatur und einige der Standardwerke zur Klassischen Mechanik.

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