Classical Mechanics

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1. marethyuFeb 2022
   Classical Mechanics by Taylor

   Relearning mechanics from first principles is fun!

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2. GooseeFeb 2018
   John Taylor "Classical Mechanics"
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3. codezeroJul 2014
   I love how everyone has their favorite Classical Mechanics text and how they are almost all very different, though Goldstein and Marion almost always top the lists.

   I learned from a less established text by Taylor: http://www.amazon.com/Classical-Mechanics-John-R-Taylor/dp/1...

   Looks unavailable, but a PDF is very clearly the second result on Google for "Classical Mechanics Taylor" so it may be a good option for the tight budget :)

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4. AvshalomMar 2012
   Classical Mechanics, John R. Taylor

   Its pretty much the best textbook I've ever owned.

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5. VicteriusDec 2022
   Let's have some fun. Here's a basic special relativity problem from John R. Taylor's Classical Mechanics.

   A space explorer A sets off at a steady 0.95c to a distant star. After exploring the star for a short time, he returns at the same speed and gets home after a total absence of 80 years (as measured by earth-bound observers.) How long do A's clocks say that he was gone, and by how much has he aged as compared to his twin B who stayed behind on earth? [Note: This is the famous "twin paradox." It is fairly easy to get the right answer by judicious insertion of a factor of γ in the right place, but to understand it, you need to recognize that it involves three inertial frames: the earth-bound frame S, the frame S' of the outbound rocket, and the frame S'' of the returning rocket. Write down the time dilation formula for the two halves of the journey and then add. Notice that the experiment is not symmetrical between the two twins: B stays at rest in the single inertial frame S, but A occupies at least two different frames. This is what allows the result to be unsymmetrical.]

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6. SteuardAug 2018
   I should probably write this up more formally somewhere. But have a look, and it would be cool if you'd give me credit somewhere if you use these notes in your own stuff (I'm Steuard Jensen, and I'm a professor at Alma College). For each course below, the books are listed in roughly my order of preference. This is far, far from being every book for each course or even every popular one, but it's a start.

   Intro Physics (Mechanics, E&M, waves, etc.):

   * Six Ideas That Shaped Physics, by Tom Moore: Conservation laws first, and a nice conceptual approach (and can incorporate "modern physics" along the way).

   * Matter and Interactions, by Chabay and Sherwood: Integrated VPython programming, and uses "true" relativistic mechanics right from the start (and quantum's built in, too).

   * Physics for Scientists and Engineers, by Randall Knight: As close to a "traditional" intro book as you can get while still paying attention to physics education research. It's very good, though I feel like the latest edition has veered back a bit to a bit more traditional order, perhaps to make it smoother for old professors to switch.

   Uncertanity/Error Analysis: (Essential for understanding experimental physics)

   * An Introduction to Error Analysis, by John Taylor: Such a beautiful little book!

   "Modern Physics": (Is a class whose content mostly ends before 1950 really "modern"?)

   * Six Ideas That Shaped Physics (Units R and Q), by Tom Moore: A very nice first introduction to both special relativity and quantum physics. Might need some supplemental content if you have time for more advanced quantum/nuclear stuff.

   [* Special Relativity, by Tom Helliwell: I learned out of this, and it was very good. I haven't taught out of it.]

   [* Quantum Physics of Atoms, Molecules, Solids, Nuclei, and Particles, by Eisberg and Resnick: I learned out of this, but haven't taught out of it. Comprehensive.]

   Intermediate Classical Dynamics: (I haven't taught this one!)

   * ?Classical Mechanics, by John Taylor: I've heard very good things about this one.

   [* Classical Dynamics of Particles and Systems, by Thornton and Marion: I learned out of it. It was fine.]

   Intermediate Electromagnetism:

   * Introduction to Electrodynamics, by David Griffiths: Truly excellent introduction to analysis of electric and magnetic fields using vector calculus and partial differential equations.

   [* ?Classical Electromagnetic Radiation, by Heald and Marion: I learned out of this. Not my favorite book, but it did the job.]

   Intermediate Quantum Mechanics:

   * A Modern Approach to Quantum Mechanics, by John Townsend: Inspired by Sakurai's graduate text, Townsend starts by studying spin and Stern-Gerlach experiments in depth using Dirac bra-ket notation, and then progresses to time evolution and position space. The chapter on the path integral formulation is fun but optional, and there's good stuff on perturbation theory and scattering and some hints toward field theory. (This may work best if students had a strong "Modern Physics" course first that studied wavefunctions in some depth.)

   [* Introduction to Quantum Mechanics, by David Griffiths: I haven't used this myself. An excellent quantum book with a more "traditional" organization, starting with wavefunctions and only later talking about Dirac notation and spin.]

   Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics:

   * An Introduction to Thermal Physics, by Daniel Schroeder: A fantastic, multi-pass blend of statistical mechanics and classical thermodynamics. It starts with basic classical definitions of thermal concepts, then introduces explicit state counting in medium-sized systems with the help of Excel, then discusses classical thermodynamics in depth, and finally goes into a full discussion Boltzmann factors and statmech.

   * Fundamentals of Statistical and Thermal Physics, by Frederick Reif: This was (for me) the least bad of the books that I used to teach myself undergraduate statmech while I was in graduate school. (I foolishly arranged to avoid the class as an undergrad.)

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