Classical Mechanics

For the most part, the book presents the same material that is usually covered in a typical first course in mechanics. There are, however, several noteworthy exceptions to this where the material presented here reaches beyond this boundary. Among these are the material on the dot and cross products of vectors, the analysis of the two-body problem, the discussion of flux and Gauss's theorem, the calculation of particular gravitational field configurations, and the philosophical assertions about the existence of fields. These topics are basic to the nature of physics and its applications and, as such, must be addressed early on in any cohesive endeavor to understand the context of physical thinking whether it be classical or modern. They are included here so that they may assume their proper place at the foundation of what might be called the structure of one's thoughts about physics. The material is presented in an order that accommodates an axiomatic approach using Newton's laws as the axioms. The book then proceeds to those analyses that follow most simply from them. This process leads easily and naturally to the definitions of such quantities as momentum, energy, impulse, work, etc. These are the quantities natural to Newtonian mechanics and consequently become the parameters most universally used to describe systems that lend themselves to a Newtonian analysis. As the book develops, it makes use of these basic concepts to address more complex issues such as circular motion, torque, combined translational and circular motion, etc. The book is written in an informal lecture style and is focused on the understanding of Newtonian mechanics rather than on developing a prowess in problem solving. Its uniqueness is difficult to describe as it is laced intractably throughout its pages and derives from the author's ability to cast each topic in the context of the simple manifestation of an understandable underlying principle.