Customer Reviews

Classical Dynamics: A Contemporary Approach

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Classical mechanics often falls by the wayside in a modern physics curriculum. However, there are times when an understanding of subtle issues in this field are simply necessary for progress in current research directions. At times like these, one is all-too-often forced to turn to older texts such as Goldstein or directly to the literature of a field with which one is rarely intimately familiar. It is therefore a great pleasure to find a text such as Jose and Saletan's, a highly modern, extremely complete and very readable textbook on mechanics at an advanced level.

The book covers all of the standard topics of a graduate mechanics course (Lagrangian and Hamiltonian dynamics, rigid bodies, etc.) as well as more modern topics such as chaotic dynamics. All these subjects are treated in great detail and both in very physical and very formal languages. Most importantly, all of these discussions (including the formal ones!) are packed with completely worked examples which allow one to begin to use these techniques without attempting to decipher formal proofs.

The breadth of topics covered and the quality of the writing make this book a valuable addition to any physicist's workbench.

This book combines the standard topics covered in a Goldstein-type course; but in a fresh light. Using techniques of modern geometry, presented in an understandable way, it explores not just the solutions of dynamical equations, but the behavior of those solutions over the manifold in which they operate. The book begins by applying this geometry to well established Newtonian mechanics. Once you have that under your belt you are propelled into the Lagrangian formulation in a way that seems quite natural and reveals, easily, the symmetries that lay within. This book is written in a tight and readable style that makes even the most difficult concepts accessable. I highly recommend it and hope that it becomes the standard by which other mechanics texts of this level are measured.

This book is, to say the least, okay. Yes, other reviewers are right when they say it's much better than Marion & Thornton. But Marion & Thornton, I think, is geared toward a less sophisticated audience, whereas this book is geared toward graduate students and beyond. It is written essentially at the level of Goldstein, but offers more insights into Topology. Goldstein hardly mentions topology.

So, because of this, one would think that Jose and Saletan would be better suited for students of theoretical and mathematical physics. But it's not. Jose and Saletan's excursions into geometry and topology are mediocre, at best. They leave out enough details that a real book on differential topology for physicists is required to gain any insight or intuition on the subject. Their transitions from pure physics to these mathematical subjects are clumsy and contrived, and they do not reveal anything that's too much more profound than if they hadn't brought up the subject at all.

And in comparing, on a purely physical level, this book to the book that sets the standard for classical mechanics, Goldstein, Jose pales in comparision. Goldstein keeps the reader fixed on a physical goal, but Jose and Saletan introduce unnecessarily complicated notation at times, and introduce ideas and concepts in a way that seems to defy logic.

And on top of all this, the paperback edition fell apart on me after less than a month of use. Some of the other students in my class who weren't as careful with their books as used them more heavily could even make it last 2 weeks before the pages were falling out of the cover.

So in summary, if you like books that cover a smattering of topics with no real rhyme or reason, or you need a good reference on classical mechanics and some of the more formal mathematics involved, then this is the book for you. But if you buy it, definitely don't buy this edition, at least if you want it to last. And if you're trying to learn classical mechanics from this book, make you you have a copy of Goldstein and a copy of Schutz's "Geometrical Methods of Mathematical Physics" available.

As some readers noted and others found to their frustration, this is an advanced text. Familiarity with mechanics, tensor notation, and similar are helpful to get the most out of this text. That said, it is a coherent exposition of classical mechanics in a modern light and will help the student develop a more advanced outlook on mechanics problems. I used it to study for my PhD qualifying examination.

Classical mechanics has been around from the times of Newton. So, it makes sense to use the modern language of differential geometry and topology to present a new perspective on this topic. This is an admirable principle but it is not at all well implemented in Jose & Saletan's book. The sections on Physics are mundane and are almost completely devoid of physical insight. The chapter on Hamilton-Jacobi equations is a good example of endless equations coupled to zero intuition. Secondly, the mathematical sections are a complete outrage. By trying to explain concepts such as tangent bundles, etc in a "physical" fashion, most of the rigour is sacrificed and what is worse, it can often lead erroneous conclusions.
Some sections in the book are better than others, but, for the most part this remains a disappointing read. Far too much of the book, for a graduate text, spends time on the same old stuff, instead of expanding the chapters on Non-linear dynamics and Classical field theory.
For those who are looking to learn essentially the same content in a slightly more readable fashion, Goldstein is a decent choice. But, if you truly wish to learn classical mechanics using all the formal rigour and beauty of mathematics, then there is only one book that comes to mind - V. Arnold's excellent tome.

If you have no exposure to Classical Mechanics or if you starting new then DON'T BUY THIS BOOK. This book is of advance nature. Books like Arya, Hauser or Corben are simpler.

The book starts with the basics, wraps up Newtonian Mechanics in the first chapter. The next five chapters deal in detail with Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulations and their applications. They discuss some difficult topics like "Tangent Bundle" "Tangent Spaces" and "lie groups". "Noether's theorem" is also included which I have not seen in many Classical Mechanics books.There are many worked out examples which help the reader understand the subject.The explanations are quite lucid.There are plently of excercises to do but no answers to problems!

This book offers all the standard text used in undergraduate mechanics courses plus a number of more contemporary topics such as Lie derivatives, manifolds and much on nonlinear dynamical systems, all in a language appropriate for a Physics book. I consider it to be the modern equivalent of classics like the books by Goldstein or Marion. The material of this book should be the new standard for modern Classical Mechanics courses.

This book provides a very easy to read introduction to the ***geometry of physics*** in the setting of mechanics. Most of the explanations that discuss manifolds are very easy to grasp and the level of the book is sufficient to take one into a much deeper understanding of mechanics and physics in general. No book is perfect (even the so called classics) and there are a few minor errors but the big picture is clear. If you are looking for a really good text that will give you another perspective on mechanics then I highly recommend this text. Also note that I have had very good durability with my copy of the paper-back text. It has endured about 7 years of heavy use and is essentially in perfect condition.

I used this book for a graduate level classical mechanics course without any prior knowledge of this subject (my background is EE). Quite often I find this book hard to follow, but it becomes understandable after I read the relevant sections in Landau and Goldstein, and Schultz for the geometrical approach. It is a very comprehensive book, but can also be very hard for those without some familiarity of this subject.

If this book is not required for your course, do not waste your money on it. Though it covers more than Goldstein, it does so quite poorly. You will learn more from two pages in Goldstein than an entire chapter in this book. The writing is unclear and the coverage of topology is so scant that its appearance is more of a hinderance to understanding than an aid. Furthermore, the book was so poorly bound that it started to fall apart one semester into the course.