PHYS 325 :: Physics Illinois :: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Textbooks and extra (online) material
Primary and optional textbooks
Classical mechanics is an old subject, and as such there are many texts. Some that are recommended (and that should be on reserve in Grainger) are
- John R. Taylor, "Classical Mechanics" (primary text)
- Marion and Thornton, "Classical Dynamics of Particles and Systems." (optional)
- Kleppner and Kolenow, "An Introduction to Mechanics" (optional, has some really interesting homework questions where the material overlaps with the course)
You are not required to buy a book. However, I encourage you to read the text to get a different perspective on the class. Furthermore, reading the indicated sections before class will give you an opportunity to familiarize yourself with the material of the lecture before the lecture is presented. Lectures tend to be much more clear when you have skimmed the material before hand. Lectures will be fairly self contained, so in principle one doesn't need a textbook at all. The lecture notes that I am using or a set of notes used by past instructors are posted on the course website.
Computer algebra programs
UIUC students should have free access to Mathematica here.
Classic Papers
Some of the classic texts in mechanics and relativity have been digitized and you can find them here:- Newton's papers, including his famous "Principia," digitized by Cambridge University Press
- A. Einstein's "Special and General Theory of Relativity" (1916)
You can find the original (in German) here