Customer Reviews

An Introduction to Celestial Mechanics (Dover Books on Astronomy)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you happen to be unfortunate enough to be using Goldstein's, Classical Mechanics, you will find that Kepler's Laws are not fully explored. I found the Moulton book to fill in alot of gaps. I do mean....alot of gaps! The book gives great detail into series expansions. Not only does it address the series, but it addresses the exact origin and derivation of the series expansions. The only thing it lacks is the recursion formula! Moulton treats all of the equations like this. He shows you complete derivations of everything. And, he is good in showing you applications of what you've learned.

In itself, the book is a textbook, but it serves as a great companion to any modern text. This book is actually quite old, so it gives you alot of insight into "antequated knowledge." You know, the "stuff" teachers already assume you know.

So, I recommend this book to anyone. It is very readable. It explains concepts in a very simplistic manner. Unlike modern books that give you point "A" and expect you to fill in all the gaps to point "Z," Moulton uses the "old style of teaching" where he takes you from point "A" to point "Z" to fully prepare you, and then, he slams you with the impossible problems at the end. But, you find the problems are not nearly as difficult due to his preparations.

Great Book!!

This is an excellent textbook covering not only celestial mechanics, but a wide range of astrophysics topics. It was written in 1902 and updated in 1914. At that time nuclear processes were not known, and the composition of the sun was thought to be mainly iron. Given these limitations, however, the math is clear, the definitions are still used, and the historical background is interesting and informative. For a more up-to-date discussion of the subject, I recommend "Fundamentals of Astrodynamics", Bate, Mueller, White (1971), but get this one for the background.

The Title is a little misleading. As an introduction, the coverage and detail this book deals with is by no means introductory, and is written for the college level student in mathematics. I needed to revise my knowledge of calculus and advanced mathematics, before I started to read this one.

However, I was pleasantly surprised by its clarity, ease of use, and explanation and example. It was worth the expense, and has made my understanding of the area much more broad and detailed. I am pleased with my purchase. I would not recommend it to someone who is unfamiliar with mathematics in terms of the complexity - it deals with calculus, advanced trigonometry and many properties of various spherical triangles and the like are assumed background knowledge. It is more a middle-level rather than a introductory textbook in my view.

Moulton assumes you know many things, or have access to them, for instance, the geometry of ellipses is used extensively, but is never explained in the book. You probably will want an analytic geometry book for reference. Moulton uses intermediate-level calculus from the very beginning, and he assumes you have a good working knowledge of it. Other than these minor gripes, Moulton is very good at explaining from the very basics, for instance, he includes an interesting geometric proof of Kepler's law of areas, which he attributes to Newton. He gives some nice geometric explanations of perturbations. Little or no math used at all in these! His derivations start much farther back than many authors, for instance, in introducing equations of motion, he first starts with some general properties of particles moving on an x-y plane, gets into particles moving around a central origin, and moves on into the well-known Newtonian equations of motion, and a few hypothetical ones. He gives many references to further study of these, all rather old, of course, but many of them intersting because they are the original works: Newton's "Principia", Gauss' "Theoria Motus", for instance. He does, here and there, plop an equation in your lap with "a well known equation for (something) is...", usually unrelated to whatever his primary explanation is, but slightly annoying. If you are used to modern vector notation, Moulton is a little confusing at first. Rather than vectors, he explains everything using old-fashioned systems of equations (in x,y,z). This makes some derivations more complicated, and you must be careful to distinguish components of, for instance, velocity and acceleration in x,y,z from the overall velocity and acceleration, because the notations look similar. At the end of most chapters, Moulton gives a summary of the historical details of the chapter's contents, who discovered what and when, complete with references! Just skimming the book for these summaries is rather interesting!

Classic book on celestial mechanics. Great supplement to a course in Astrophysics or Classical Mechanics.

THOUGH THE WRONG BOOK WAS SENT-THE SERVICE WAS GREAT-GRACIOUSLY THE MONEY WAS REFUNDED FORTHWITH. I'M CONSTANTLY ORDERING BOOKS FROM THE AMAZON SELLERS WITH GOOD RESULTS AND FAST SERVICE! (MOULTON BOOK ORDERED - 1963 COPY MCCUSKEY RECEIVED)THE MOULTON BOOK IS 3 TIMES THE SIZE AND FAR MORE EXPLANATORY! THANKS

This is a surprisingly complex book, despite it paperback-like format, it's almost a college level textbook. If your looking for a comprehensive look at the mathematics of celestial bodies in motion and can handle the heavy emphasis on calculus, trig, and matrixes; this book might be ideal.
If on the other hand you simply wanted to understand the basics, without higher math skills, you will probably find this book inaccessible. Clearly, there is a need for a Celestial Mechanics For Dummies book, albeit for a tiny market.