Stats for nerds
0recommend
3mentions
3people
2020years
33% neutral67% critical
What Hacker News says
- I've wanted to do this for a while. What's your process like? I have a few books (Introduction to Space Dynamics, the BMW book, etc) but I'm not sure if I should read it cover to cover or try to design a curriculum etc.
Do you use any simulation software or just pen and paper?
- > In fact, this is a book to show why one needs analytical mechanics
I don't think the goal of the book is to obviate more advanced courses. It does well what it sets out to do, which is lay a foundation of dynamics. Contrasting it with other dynamics books I've read through, this one is self-consistent and much easier to follow the math on. Yes, the solutions are often long-winded, but that is the cost you pay for having a system. Other books like Introduction to Space Dynamics are very hand-wavey and not easy to check your work or find where you made a mistake, not to mention you must pick your coordinate systems very carefully and up front. Coordinate systems should not dictate the physics; it should be the other way around.
Besides, this methodology is applicable to other circumstances beyond just dynamics. The rigorous approach to dealing with reference frames and coordinate systems is well applied to other fields like computer graphics, regardless of whether Lagrangian is more well suited to mechanical applications.
> coordinate-free manner
Yes, I said that, not coordinate invariant, and in fact my description was deliberately as devoid of jargon as I could make it. It should be taken as plain English.
> It's not just unconventional, this book is filled with terrible examples and techniques to solve problems
Considering Dr. Rao's successful tenure working at Draper as well as working on NASA spacecraft and other military vehicles, plus running a vehicle dynamics lab, I'm inclined to believe it has value beyond what you believe it to. Though I would be interested to read your textbook when it comes out, and I do appreciate the perspective.
- > Other books like Introduction to Space Dynamics are very hand-wavey... Coordinate systems should not dictate the physics; it should be the other way around.
It seems like you've not tried reading actual physics books written by real physicists and have only purveyed books known to a handful of engineering specialists, and have come to the conclusion that this is the best book for learning mechanics. I also fail to see why specialists wouldn't want to make use of methods that would make their lives easier and instead would want to dredge through pages of pointless algebra.
> The rigorous approach to dealing with reference frames and coordinate systems is well applied to other fields like computer graphics
In most universities around the world such things are taught as part of a standard vector calculus course or a mathematical methods course. You don't need this book (or any mechanics book for that matter) to learn such things.
> Though I would be interested to read your textbook when it comes out
I'll ignore the snideness of your comment, but will suggest that it's perhaps not a good idea to recommend/use books that take haphazard approaches for solving standard problems (some that were solve almost three centuries ago). In any case, my "textbook" would not look very different from the other 99% of textbooks written on analytical mechanics. If you want a recommendation, pick up Cornelius Lanczos's The Variational Principles of Mechanics [1], which is a real classic and a gem of a book.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Variational-Principles-Mechanics-Dove...
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