Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This textbook provides a simple introduction to mechanics for students coming to the subject for the first time. The text is based on courses given to first and second year undergraduates and has been written with this audience very much in mind. Prerequisites are only a basic familiarity withvectors, matrices, and elementary calculus. The author's aim is to provide an understanding of Newtonian mechanics using the tools of modern algebra. The first chapters of the book introduce the fundamentals of the motion of rigid bodies: Newton's laws, forces, linear and angular momentum, and theconservation of energy. In the later chapters the theory of Lagrangian mechanics is developed and extended to cover applications to impulsive forces. Throughout the theory is illustrated with many worked examples and numerous exercises (some with solutions) are provided.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• 1 Newton's Laws
• 2 Central Forces
• 3 Energy
• 4 Rotating Frames
• 5 Many Particle Systems
• 6 Rigid Bodies
• 7 Soluble Problems in Rigid Body Motion
• 8 Lagrangian Mechanics
• 9 Impulsive Forces
• 1 Newton's laws
• 2 Central forces
• 3 Energy
• 4 Rotating frames
• 5 Many-particle systems
• 6 Rigid bodies: equations
• 7 Soluble problems in rigid body motion
• 8 Lagrangian mechanics
• 9 Impulsive forces
• Appendices 1, 2, 3 Solutions to odd-numbered exercises
• Index

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Lunn develops dynamics principles from the viewpoint of vector calculus and matrix methods. The classical areas of mechanics are well organized and extremely clear. The text contains numerous examples and problems at the end of each chapter, but the exercises are primarily parametric manipulations. This book should interest aerospace, civil, and mechanical engineering students in addition to science majors. Its treatment is somewhat similar to the following: Ferdinand P. Beer and E. Russell Johnston, Jr., Mechanics for Engineers (4th ed., 1987), and J. L. Meriam and L.G. Kraige, Dynamics, v. 2 of Engineering Mechanics (2nd ed., 1986). Recommended for lower-division undergraduate students and engineering/science libraries.