Classical Mechanics (3rd Edition) | 
 enlarge | Authors: Herbert Goldstein, Charles P. Poole, John L. Safko
Publisher: Addison Wesley
Category: Book
List Price: $138.00
Buy New: $79.00
You Save: $59.00 (43%)
New (29) Used (19) from $70.00
Rating:  24 reviews
Sales Rank: 62337
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 3
Pages: 680
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.9
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 7.6 x 1.5
ISBN: 0201657023
Dewey Decimal Number: 531
EAN: 9780201657029
Publication Date: June 25, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
For thirty years this has been the acknowledged standard in advanced classical mechanics courses. This classic book enables readers to make connections between classical and modern physics - an indispensable part of a physicist's education. In this new edition, Beams Medal winner Charles Poole and John Safko have updated the book to include the latest topics, applications, and notation, to reflect today's physics curriculum. They introduce readers to the increasingly important role that nonlinearities play in contemporary applications of classical mechanics. New numerical exercises help readers to develop skills in how to use computer techniques to solve problems in physics. Mathematical techniques are presented in detail so that the book remains fully accessible to readers who have not had an intermediate course in classical mechanics. For college instructors and students.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 19 more reviews...
 A very good upper division textbook on mechanics November 30, 2004
Jill Malter (jillmalter@aol.com)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
This is an excellent way to learn classical mechanics. Actually, I prefer Landau's book. But Landau's book is about 170 pages and this one is about 650 pages.
And you get much more material with this book. The book is readable, and there are plenty of useful exercises. You start off with Lagrange's equations. Then you learn a little about the calculus of variations. And then the central force problem, kinematics of rigid body motion, and oscillations. And there's material on Hamilton's equations, canonical transformations, and Hamilton-Jacobi theory. In this manner, the text covers in 420 pages what Landau does in 170. There are more explanations and more examples. It's not a bad way to learn the subject.
In addition, there are chapters on special relativity, chaos, canonical perturbation theory, and continuous systems and fields. These are good topics to cover in a upper division class on mechanics. This book has a lot to offer a student and would be fun to teach from.
A landmark October 14, 2001
Francesco Pedulla (Rome, ITALY)
13 out of 16 found this review helpful
This book was originally written in 1950. Inspite of its age, it is still a masterpiece in its kind. The author's approach is very attentive to developing the physical intuition, which makes the book an easy reading. The breadth of coverage is remarkable: along with relativity (and a bit of electromagnetism), it covers the mechanics of continua, too. The wide coverage more than pays back the effort of reading the relatively long text. Last but not least, the book is very well suited for self-study thanks to both its clarity and the many exercises provided (without solutions, unfortunately). Overall, it's still unsurpassed if you want to understand mechanics by yourself at the beginning graduate level. For the sake of this purpose, neither Landau not Arnold (two other masterpieces) come close. Rather, I recommend you to first read Goldstein and some time later read Arnold.
Excellent March 2, 2008
Marc Collette
An outstandingly good quality book, both in content and in the book itself. Very satisfied.
Mechanics February 4, 2003
5 out of 8 found this review helpful
This is a superb book for graduate level mechanics. It is complete and rigorous. It is a bit pricy, so look for used copies. The second edition is more standard since there is a lot of new notation in the third. There are a handful of minor typos that a careful read will weed out.
Quite thorough August 11, 2001
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is a far better book than any other book on Classical Mechanics that I have come across. This one starts with simple things and goes on to develop the ideas quite lucidly and logically - which lack in Landau. The explanations do help in understanding what the author is trying to establish.
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