Analytical mechanics is, of course, a topic of perennial interest and usefulness in physics and engineering, a discipline that boasts not only many practical applications, but much inherent mathematical beauty. Unlike many standard textbooks on advanced mechanics, however, this present text eschews a primarily technical and formalistic treatment in favor of a fundamental, historical, philosophical approach. As the author remarks, there is a tremendous treasure of philosophical meaning" behind the great theories of Euler and Lagrange, Hamilton, Jacobi, and other mathematical...

Considered by many educators one of the finest elementary scientific treatises ever written, this work contains all of the characteristic freshness and elegance of Maxwell's writings and gives illuminating glimpses of a great mind's approach to fundamental subjects. After 115 years, Matter and Motion still retains its power of suggestion; it deserves a place in any well-rounded modern scientific library.
As drawn up by one of the masters of science, the book is a carefully thought-out survey of Newtonian dynamics. Its generalizations proceed gradually from simple particles of...

Mathematical physics plays an important role in the study of many physical processes -- hydrodynamics, elasticity, and electrodynamics, to name just a few. Because of the enormous range and variety of problems dealt with by mathematical physics, this thorough advanced undergraduate- or graduate-level text considers only those problems leading to partial differential equations.
Contents:
I. Classification of Partial Differential Equations
II. Evaluations of the Hyperbolic Type
III. Equations of the Parabolic Type
IV. Equations of Elliptic Type
V. Wave Propagation in...