List of good classical physics books

Question

What are some good books for learning the concepts of Kinematics, Newton laws, 2D Motion of Object etc.?

Answer 1

The Feynman Lectures on Physics Volume 1

Image from Amazon.com

Answer 2

One would be hard pushed to find anything better than Kleppner & Kolenkow's textbook - concise and comprehensive and has lots of great exercises.

Answer 3

Try Fundamental Laws of Mechanics (by I.E. Irodov). Don't use its problem book as mentioned in a previous answer. The book is written in traditional Russian style, but it will give you clear & super advance idea of mechanics. Its useful to a High School guy as well as a PHD student. http://www.amazon.com/Fundamental-laws-mechanics-I-Irodov/dp/B0007ASWBW/

If you feel it somewhat compact & hard-to-learn book, look no further than Fundamentals of Physics (by Resnik & Halliday).

http://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Physics-Chapters-David-Halliday/dp/047004473X/

Answer 4

I learnt mechanics as an undergrad with John R. Taylors's "Classical Mechanics", and found it interesting and straightforward. The presentation is wonderful, but most exercises are quite difficult for an undergrad.

Answer 5

I guess this was too basic for the Physicists here to answer so this lurking Computer Science guy will take a shot. I read those things in High School using the book by Resnik & Halliday.

If you were taught in the Russian tradition (like me) with emphasis on math and lot of problem solving, you might like the book by Irodov. Learning Physics by solving problems is IMHO the best way to do it.

http://www.amazon.com/Problems-general-physics-I-Irodov/dp/5030008004

Answer 6

I would suggest "Introduction to classical mechanics" by David Morin. It's the best book of mechanics i've ever seen. It's full of solved interesting problem. You can easily see the deep difference between this and other mechanics books. David Morin Introduction to classical mehcanics

Answer 7

Mathematical Methods of Classical Mechanics - V.I. Arnol’d

It is a graduate book, more focused on the mathematical and modern aspects. If you like to see Classical Mechanics and learn about Manifolds, Differential Forms ... this is for you.

Answer 8

And after you get familiar with the basics, you should read Landau and Lifshitz 10 volume series on physics (at least take a look on the first 3 most important volumes) to get familiar with the real word physics, not the simplified version of it.

Answer 9

I would recommend

• L.D. Landau, E.M. Lifshitz (1976). Mechanics. Vol. 1 (3rd ed.)

Also a very nice approach (at least from my point of view) you can find in Walter Greiner's books:

• Classical Mechanics, Point Particles and Relativity 1st English Ed.(2004)

and

• Classical Mechanics, Systems of Particles and Hamiltonian Dynamics 1st English Ed. (2003)

(The second part of the last book might go beyond the scope of your question)

Answer 10

University Physics - Young and Freedman (any edition)

This is an excellent book, with pretty much every concept on covered in first year university level physics.

Within the mechanics section ($\simeq$ 500 pages)(which I presume the OP wants), it has chapters on

1. Motion along a straight line
2. Motion in 2D and 3D
3. Newton's laws of motion
4. Applying Newton's laws
5. Work and kinetic energy
6. Potential energy and energy conservation
7. Momentum, impulse and collisions
8. Rotation of rigid bodies
9. Dynamics of rotational motion
10. Equilibrium and elasticity
11. Fluid mechanics
12. Gravitation
13. Periodic motion

The other sections are: Waves and Acoustics (2 chapters), Thermodynamics (4 chapters), Electromagnetism (12 chapters), Optics (4 chapters), and finally Modern Physics (8 chapters).

The book has hundreds of worked examples on each topic and around 1000 examples to try without help (half of the solutions are in the back).

In my opinion, it's the best value for money of any physics book in the world.

Answer 11

I recommend "Thinking Physics" by Lewis Carroll Epstein. It's a long accumulation of conceptual problems in introductory physics, for example, "Suppose you drop a ball out a window and it hits the ground at 3 m/s. Now you throw a ball out the same window straight down at 4 m/s. How fast will it hit the ground?" The answer is 5 m/s, and the book illustrates how these numbers are related to the Pythagorean theorem due to kinetic energy depending on the square of velocity. I learned a lot by working through this book as a supplemental text when I was a college freshman.

http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Physics-Understandable-Practical-Reality/dp/0935218084/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1298917867&sr=8-1

Answer 12

Go for Concepts in Physics by HC Verma

Answer 13

These two, by Jacob Pieter Den Hartog, are excellent. Classical applied mechanics (a.k.a. engineering). Wonderful introductions, easy to read and pedagogical!

Mechanics

Mecahnical vibrations

Answer 14

The Best book: Fundamentals of Physics by Resnick and Halliday

Wiley site