Classical Mechanics

by John R. Taylor

John Taylor has brought to his new book, Classical Mechanics, all of the clarity and insight that made his introduction to Error Analysis a best-selling text.

Genres: Physics, Textbooks, Science, Nonfiction, Reference, Mathematics, Stem

786 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2003

About the author

John Taylor is Professor of Physics and Presidential Teaching Scholar at the University of Colorado in Boulder. He took his B.A. in mathematics from Cambridge University and his Ph.D. in physics from the University of California at Berkeley, where he studied the theory of elementary particles. He has taught at the Universities of Cambridge and London in England, and at Princeton. and Colorado in the U.S. He first came to Colorado in 1966. Since then he has won five university and departmental teaching awards. He is the author of three text books: a graduate text on quantum scattering theory; an undergraduate text on error analysis, which has been translated into German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Russian, and Spanish; and an undergraduate

text on modem physics. The second edition of the book on error analysis appeared in 1997. His research interests include quantum scattering theory and the foundations of quantum theory, and he has published some fifty articles in journals such as the Physical Review and the Journal of Mathematical Physics. For several years he was Associate Editor of the American Journal of Physics.
For the past eighteen years he has given his "Mr. Wizard" shows to some 60,000 children on the Boulder campus and in many towns in Colorado. He received an Emmy Award for his television series "Physics for Fun", which aired on KCNC TV in 1988 -1990. In 1989 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Citation of the American Association of Physics Teachers. In the same year, he won one of eleven Gold Medals in the national "Professor of the Year" program and was named Colorado Professor of the Year. In 1998, at the invitation of the International Science Festival in Dunedin, he toured New Zealand and gave IS "Mr. Wizard" shows in various museums and colleges.

Reviews

[Haneen AlSuradi]

The best book I read till now in my undergraduate studies. VERY clear, easy to follow,and comprehensive.

Its clearness will give you a solid understanding of the addressed topics. The topics of the book: Newtonian mechanics, oscillations,rotational motion, two-body central force problems, Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics. Further topics are addressed like non-linear mechanics and chaos, & special relativity.


In a nutshell, this book is unequaled in its field.

[Ashiqul Dip · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent physics text with mathematical rigor. Comprehensive but still insightful. It starts from the discussion of Newtonian mechanics, teaches Lagrangian re-formulation and goes deeper to the Hamiltonian mechanics. This is a lucid text which can be taught (first five chapters) even in freshman level. If it is the question of making foundation, this book is peerless.

[Omar Almusaddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the most well written textbooks I’ve every used…but that doesn’t account for the therapy I’ll need because of it.

[Kevin Montes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I used this book for my junior level mechanics courses. I read the text and worked the problems for every chapter except for the 12th on nonlinear mechanics and chaotic systems. It was very clear, well organized, and easy to read, and it also provided a clear progression from the ideas of Newtonian mechanics to the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulations so that I could understand the bigger picture. My favorite parts were some of the chapters at the end of the book, particularly those treating rotating bodies and special relativity. Although the reader can read (almost) every chapter in order as I did, Taylor wrote the text knowing full well that many people would focus more heavily on some parts than others, or skip some parts entirely. The chapters and sections are commented in the margins to guide the reader that approaches it this way. This is a great read that I would recommend to anyone curious about classical mechanics!

[Leif Segen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a *quality* text book.

[Sergio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este libro me ha abierto los ojos sobre como funciona el mundo. A través de un carácter informal pero riguroso ha conseguido ampliar las fronteras de mis conocimientos hacia los rincones más profundos de la mecánica clásica. Todo ello mediante el característico estilo de Taylor.

Si no fuese por el apoyo de este libro ahora mismo seguiría atascado en segundo de carrera, pero gracias a este libro puedo decir que he evolucionado en todos los sentidos, siempre aprendiendo por el camino.

A veces no se necesitan personajes carismáticos para crear una historia apasionante, basta con un puñado de fórmulas y mucho tiempo libre.

Eternamente agradecido a Jhon R. Taylor. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

[James Millikan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Taylor's Classical Mechanics is, well, a classic. The prose —like Griffiths's Quantum Mechanics— is razor sharp and clear. Seriously engaging with this text doesn't just teach you physics; it teaches you how to think like a physicist.

If I were forced to offer one area for improvement, it would be to include more computational physics. Taylor often remarks that, say, the differential equations for the quadratic drag force on baseball must be solved numerically, but then moves on to other examples that can be solved analytically. The scientific computing homework problems were good, but were unfortunately few and far between.

Despite that quibble, Taylor's Classical mechanics remains a masterpiece and deserves its reputation as the standard undergraduate text. The sections on Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics were particularly well-written and engaging. Highly recommended.

[Sangeet. S · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really great book for the freshman in undergraduate physics. This book covers a plethora of topics with sufficient mathematical rigor and is very easy to follow for a beginner.

Although this book does a great job at focusing attention to the Calculus of Variations unlike it's counterpart "Introduction to Classical Mechanics" by David Morin, it's slew of additional topics require a little bit more work to be as coherent as Morin's.

[Tue Le · Rating 5 out of 5]

Too bad this was not the chosen textbook for my courses on classical mechanics. Taylor never shied away from explaining things in detail or giving comprehensible examples and exercises with different levels of difficulty. This is a solid text for intermediate to advanced classical mechanics.

[Joseph Mirabelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like it more than Griffiths' E&M. There. I said it.

[Ruba Hussein · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this textbook for anyone interested in the field

[Evan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've now read this cover to cover once, and many individual sections multiple times, and taught an upper division course from the book. I like it; it's a really really good textbook. It's especially notable for being outstandingly clear in its prose and mathematics (though there's a couple spots where he should make clear he's being illustrative rather than rigorous). But I also get the feeling that something holds it back from being a *truly wonderful* undergrad textbook, an adjective I'd apply to Schroeder's Thermal Physics or Griffiths's Introduction to Electrodynamics. But it's hard to put my finger on exactly what holds it back a bit.

I think I can identify three things that I wished it had achieved, but that it didn't quite. I don't know that I would know how to fix two of them, while the third is easily remedied by reading this along side other texts or exercises.

First, there is a lack of cohesiveness leading to a narrative satisfaction that highlights the beauty of the field. For comparison, Schroeder does this admirably for Thermal Physics. When you finish Schroeder's book, having reasoned your way to Bose-Einstein Condensates, simulated magnets, and stood on the edge of black holes, you might look back and notice the humble beginnings: a thermometer, or a particle moving through space. You notice how much you can do with simple ideas, and the beauty snaps into place, as it had intermittently throughout the book. Taylor doesn't achieve this sense of wonder in his writing as a whole (though he does for many individual sections), which is a little unfortunate, because I do think that many teaching physicists (myself included) fail to get the beauty across amidst all the difficult nuts and bolts. However, I have no idea how to achieve a better textbook structure in this regard for this particular course; I'm not a skilled enough writer to see that.

Second, I find myself a little dissatisfied with how long it takes to get to truly novel (i.e., totally distinct from Physics I) material (from the student point of view). I totally understand why Taylor does this -- most of our students need that review and to see that it can be taken further than it was in Physics I if they develop their math skills -- but it also seems to leave insufficient time for students to internalize the truly new ways of thinking about mechanics. I think I'd like to see things like Lagrangian mechanics earlier, but I have no idea how to achieve that perfectly in practice. (Other authors do attempt to achieve things like this, but I don't think they achieve the clarity of Taylor, so I dunno if it is really an improvement.)

Finally, while Taylor often computes things numerically, he rarely suggests that the reader should. This is perhaps the only way in which the book feels dated. There are many sections for which adding even a few sentences and problems about using a programming language to achieve the results would enhance the clarity and prod the reader to numerically explore things. However, it is very easy to supplement Taylor with such explorations, so this isn't much of a drawback (I simply occasionally asked students to use Python Jupyter notebooks to investigate interesting differential equations). To return to my examples in the first paragraph, Griffith's E&M has this same failing, but Schroeder's Thermo gets it just right.

[Nazir · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the first physics textbooks I took seriously during my undergraduate years. Such a fun time! The explanations are wonderful to someone like me. Physical intuition is primarily emphasized, then backed up by more careful mathematical treatements. The chapters introducing Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics were particularly exceptional in the book. Rigid body mechanics and non-inertial frames were also explained in a lucid manner here, followed by some nice exercises. Would definitely recommend this textbook as a primary source for learning classical mechanics. As a bonus, you also get to learn some nice ordinary differential equation techniques as well along the way!

[Kent Sibilev · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fantastic introduction to the classical mechanics. Besides typical topics such as the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formalism, it covers some other interesting concepts like chaos, special relativity and continuum mechanics. The math requirement are pretty low, which means that the author takes extra steps (pages) to introduce the required math concepts. This makes the book pretty thick. On the other hand, it reads fluently and the concepts are explained in a concise and clear way.

Highly recommend it for anyone who wants to go beyond the elementary physics.

[Hezekiah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the textbook used in my undergraduate classical mechanics course around 2009. This textbook is written with immense clarity and is suitable for independent learning. There are many worked examples in the text, and the conceptual explanations are also excellent. I highly recommend this text for undergraduate upper-level physics, either as a primary textbook for independent learning or as a supplementary textbook to augment a student's understanding of mechanics in conjunction with their course's primary textbook.

[Bill]

Read most of it when I sat in on a physics course in classical mechanics. A funny thing happened to me while I was getting my car serviced. I sat in the waiting room reading this book on classical mechanics while they checked over my car. The service writer came out and explained what was wrong with me car. I told him that I really didn't understand. He looked at me and said "I see what book you are reading. You can't fool me!"

This is an excellent book. It is straight forward to read.

[Tianxing Weng · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well-written intermediate classical mechanics. Covers as many topics as you may encounter in undergraduate CM. Also a good transition to more advanced (and mathematically rigorous) CM. Should also try to do those problems at the end of each chapter as you proceed with reading. This time I mostly take care of the second half of the first part (chapters 6-11), and learned a lot, of course, again. Thanks to Taylor.

[Tuvalu · Rating 3 out of 5]

long and dry. Good supplement to a classical mechanics course but often found its examples too trivial and its questions too hard. Its understandable why this is "The Book" on classical mechanics because its very hard to find books as comprehensive as this but there is room for improvement. More examples in all the sections is a must and the chaos and NLD section should be completely redone.

[Max Huang · Rating 5 out of 5]

2 reasons for this review: 1. Taylor's clarity in his derivations is outstanding. So excellent, in fact, that there is yet a need for a second/revised edition. 2. I am behind on my 2024 reading challenge.

[M B · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best textbooks I've ever read on any subject.

[Gwen Prell · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best physics textbook I have ever read. Just amazing.

[Oudom Rith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great textbook on mechanics I ever read .

[Nicky Sadighi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written and understandable.

[Aroub · Rating 4 out of 5]

درست مادة Classical Mechanics من كتاب Taylor و Marion مزامنة
وجدت Marion أفضل من ناحية الأمثلة والحل في حين كان Taylor مهتم أكثر بالمفهوم
لا أستطيع المفاضلة بينهما كلاهما جيد

[Andrew Page · Rating 4 out of 5]

Never actually says how to build a car.

[Mary T · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not very inspiring.

[Isaac · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great textbook that covers a lot of classical mechanics. I'm not a massive fan of using differentials, but the methods tend to be more rigorous than most.

[Eduardo Soares · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good book for a student that is learning Classical Mechanics on college level for the first time.

[Angel Hernandez · Rating 5 out of 5]

🐐

[Luis Ernesto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cool