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Classical Mechanics
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.
786 pages, Board Book
First published March 1, 2003
About the author
John R. Taylor
189 books15 followersJohn 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.
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March 9, 2013The 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.
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.
January 20, 2013
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.
May 5, 2022
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.
April 1, 2023
Classical Mechanics by John R. Taylor is undoubtedly one of the best books in undergraduate classical mechanics, I definitely consider it a classic. Taylor's book is highly readable and has a broad and fairly traditional coverage of the subject while also being relatively self-contained, Taylor presents ideas in vector calculus and linear algebra as you progress through the text although if you intend to embark on reading this text I would recommend you have a background in vector calculus and some elementary differential equations and knowledge of matrix operations. Of course, when it comes to physics a robust calculus-based mechanics course (M.I.T 8.012) should suffice. Taylor begins in chapter 1 by briefly discussing Newton's Laws, discussing definitions of mass and force, which I found a bit lacking but fine for this level, further discussions are on inertial frames and the relation between Newton's third law and conservation of linear momentum. Chapter 2: Projectiles and charged particles. This is a topic usually brushed over in introductory classes and here Taylor covers the topic well and also touches upon numerical solutions to the combination of linear and quadratic drag. Chapter 3: Momentum and Angular Momentum. Nothing really new here, a brief review of momentum, something new for some readers might be rocket dynamics with instantaneous mass loss, although books such as Kleppner and Kolenkow's introduction to mechanics go into much more detail. Chapter 4: Energy. Excellent treatment of energy, path independence and conservative forces. In my opinion, this is one of the best chapters in the book, clearly highlighting Taylor's excellent pedagogical style. Chapter 5: Oscillations. Overall great coverage of the many different solutions to the differential equation describing harmonic oscillations with a brief discussion of Fourier analysis. Chapter 6: Calculus of Variations. Another amazing chapter in this book, I love Taylor's derivation of the principle of stationary action and the highlight of variational principles in physics. This chapter leads perfectly into the next. Chapter 7: Lagrange's Equations. Excellent treatment of Lagrangian mechanics, probably one of the best I have seen so far, Taylor eloquently shows how the principle of stationary action directly relates to the physical quantity we call the Lagrangian which helps us solve much more complicated systems while also highlighting a deeper fundamental truth of nature. Taylor also shows proof of the lagrangian with constraints and how an infinitesimal variation of the action integral doesn't change the Euler-Lagrange equations, he then ends the chapter by discussing the method of Lagrange multipliers to modify the Lagrangian to contain constraint forces. A more complete discussion of symmetries is lacking, particularly a full discussion of Noether's Theorem. Chapter 8: Two-Body Central-Force Problems. Fairly standard treatment and a very natural continuation of Lagrangian mechanics. Chapter 9: Mechanics in Noninertial Frames. This is actually quite a difficult chapter, Taylor does a great job highlighting the use of noninertial frames to solve different problems more efficiently, although I feel there is a lack of discussion of the relations of forces between reference frames. Chapter 10: Rotational Motion of Rigid Bodies. Oh boy, this was tough. I think Taylor did a pretty good job introducing the inertia tensor and the overall discussion is fairly complete, although there are finer details lacking (Morin's book has a great section on Noninertial Frames). The mathematics is much more concise and the notation is easier to work with, the same goes for the other half of the chapter in the discussion of precession by weak torque. Personally, I find this half of the chapter quite laborious as Taylor provides little physical intuition on the concept of precession and particularly the concept of nutation. I would recommend Morin's Introduction to Classical Mechanics for a more complete discussion on precession, although the notation can become a little tedious. Chapter 11: Coupled Oscillations and Normal Modes: Pretty interesting chapter, much more mathematically intensive with the linear algebra, although since the discussion is only limited to the linear case the results are kind of predictable. Chapter 12: Nonlinear Mechanics and Chaos. A very interesting and complete discussion of nonlinear mechanics. Chapter 13: Hamiltonian Mechanics. I found this chapter a little underwhelming as Taylor simply derived Hamilton's equations from Lagrange, briefly discusses the similarities and differences, particularly phase-space and state-space and how phase-space is geometrically better than state-space, he then proceeds to prove Liouvilles theorem. But other than that there are glaring omissions such as any other reasons why the Hamiltonian formalism is even useful. The last three chapters and nothing special to name them 14: Collision Theory. 15: Special Relativity. 16: Continuum Mechanics. These are standard with their coverage. Overall this book is excellent, the number of problems at the end of every chapter is in the range of 30-50, these are pretty standard problems most of which are fairly uninteresting although I have come to expect as much. Better problems, more complete discussions of symmetry and Hamiltonian mechanics, along with a chapter on how classical mechanics relates to other areas of physics and this book would be at the top of my list. Overall this book is excellent and I would recommend it to any aspiring physicist.
May 12, 2007
This is a *quality* text book.
April 27, 2015
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!
April 16, 2022
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.
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.
June 10, 2019
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.
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.
July 26, 2017
I like it more than Griffiths' E&M. There. I said it.
March 21, 2016
I highly recommend this textbook for anyone interested in the field
May 11, 2022
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.
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.
April 22, 2021
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.
Highly recommend it for anyone who wants to go beyond the elementary physics.
May 8, 2022
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.
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May 4, 2021Read 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.
This is an excellent book. It is straight forward to read.
June 3, 2022
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.
December 19, 2023
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.
May 23, 2017
One of the best textbooks I've ever read on any subject.
June 12, 2018
The best physics textbook I have ever read. Just amazing.
September 5, 2018
Great textbook on mechanics I ever read .
September 20, 2018
Beautifully written and understandable.
December 30, 2019
درست مادة Classical Mechanics من كتاب Taylor و Marion م��امنة
وجدت Marion أفضل من ناحية الأمثلة والحل في حين كان Taylor مهتم أكثر بالمفهوم
لا أستطيع المفاضلة بينهما كلاهما جيد
وجدت Marion أفضل من ناحية الأمثلة والحل في حين كان Taylor مهتم أكثر بالمفهوم
لا أستطيع المفاضلة بينهما كلاهما جيد
February 6, 2021
Never actually says how to build a car.
March 8, 2021
Not very inspiring.
January 10, 2022
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.
February 27, 2022
Really good book for a student that is learning Classical Mechanics on college level for the first time.
June 12, 2023
Le scénario est enlevant et plein de péripéties.
December 10, 2023
10/10 would recommend not reading on ur own for pleasure. saved my grades. But still
January 9, 2024
This book made me consistently cry.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews