Customer Reviews

Introduction to Mechanics and Symmetry: A Basic Exposition of Classical Mechanical Systems (Texts in Applied Mathematics)

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

 

 

As mathematically sophisticated as Arnold but, unlike Arnold, Marsden has the good grace to properly define fundamentals such as the various spaces and transformations used. The introductory exposition of similarities and differences of Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics is most helpful and refreshing.

This review is for Engineers. The back cover of the book says that it is accessible to advanced undergrads... to engineers etc. I am doing PhD in engineering and I have taken many classes in Math (including differential geometry, topology, analysis, PDEs, abstract algebra) and Mechanics. With great difficulty
I read this book (about 50% of the book). It is not well-organized.

The theory is not carefully developed. For example, the first
chapter is one of the difficult chapters to understand all the
things as it tries to give the summary of the book. The Chapter
9 (on Lie groups) says that the definition on Lie Algebra is
in the Introduction (it is not clear whether it is in the Introduction of the chapter or in the Introduction of the
book). After seeing in the index, one can find that it is in the Introduction of the text. If a person is encountering this
kind of stuff for the first time, how will he remember what is given in the Chapter 1 (given the fact that Chapter 1 is the
one of the difficult chapters to read in this book). Do n't you think it is logical to give this important definition in Chapter 9 as the previous chapters does not require this definition.

The book may be suited for a class as the professor will guide
the students. But for self-study, I do not recommend this book.
Instead I recommend the book by Arnold. Though the book by
Arnold is not as sophisticated as Marsden, it gives nice
picture for an engineer.

I truely liked the book, but in the edition I have got, the whole index is messed up, i.e. you find the keyword a few pages below the page given in the index. Probably this blunder will not be repeated in coming up editions...I hope so, because the book is worth being used.