Exploring Classical Mechanics: A Collection of 350+ Solved Problems for Students, Lecturers, and Researchers - Second Revised and Enlarged English Edition

This new edition of a popular textbook offers an original collection of problems in analytical mechanics. Analytical mechanics is the first chapter in the study and understanding of theoretical physics. Its methods and ideas are crucially important, as they form the basis for all other branches of theoretical physics, including quantum mechanics, statistical physics, and field theory. Such concepts as the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formalisms, normal oscillations, adiabatic invariants, Liouville theorem, and canonical transformations lay the foundation, without which any further in-depth study of theoretical physics is impossible. Wherever possible, the authors draw analogies and comparisons with similar processes in electrodynamics, quantum mechanics, or statistical mechanics while presenting the solutions to the problems. The textbook is based on the authors’ many years of experience delivering lectures and seminars at the Department of Physics at Novosibirsk State University – totalling an impressive 110+ years of combined teaching experience. The content of the book corresponds to and roughly follows the mechanics course in the well-known textbooks by Landau and Lifshitz, Goldstein, or ter Haar. Most of the problems are original, and will be useful not only for those studying mechanics, but also for those who teach it.First published in 1969 in Russian, this text has become widely used in classrooms around the world. It has been translated into several languages, and has seen multiple editions in various languages.