Essential Dynamics & Relativity provides students with an introduction to the core aspects of dynamics and special relativity. The author reiterates important ideas and terms throughout and covers concepts that are often missing from other textbooks at this level. He also places each topic within the wider constructs of the theory, without jumping from topic to topic to illustrate a point. The first section of the book focuses on dynamics, discussing the basic aspects of single particle motion and analyzing the motion of multi-particle systems. The book also explains the dynamical behavior of both composite bodies (rigid bodies) and objects in non-inertial frames of reference (rotating reference frames). The second section concentrates on relativity. The author describes the ideas leading to the inception of special relativity. He also formulates fundamental aspects, such as time dilation, length contraction, Lorentz transformations, and the visual aids of Minkowski diagrams, necessary to develop more sophisticated ideas. He then develops the concepts within the context of relativistic mechanics. With many examples throughout and exercises at the end of each chapter, this text makes the often daunting and confusing ideas of dynamics and special relativity accessible to undergraduate students studying the subjects for the first time.

Dynamics and Relativity provides undergraduates in physics with an unusually accessible introduction to special relativity by emphasizing the connections between relativity and classical mechanics. The book begins by developing classical mechanics in a form that the author calls "Galilean Relativity," which emphasizes frames of reference. The author shows how a problem formulated in one frame of reference can then solved in another where the problem takes a simpler form. After applying this strategy to a number of classical problems, the author discusses the limitations of Galilean Relativity, particularly for handling Maxwell's equations, and then proceeds to develop Special Relativity while drawing extensively on the groundwork from the previous chapters. The book stresses conservation laws throughout and includes a final chapter that briefly outlines General Relativity.

This is a remarkable book. Arthur Yaghjian is by training and profession an electrical engineer; but he has a deep interest in fundamental questions usually reserved for physicists. Working largely in isolation he has studied the relevant papers of an enormous literature accumulated over a century. The result is a fresh and novel approach to old problems and to their solution. Physicists since Lorentz have looked at the problem of the equations of motion of a charged object primarily as a problem for the description of a fundamental particle, typically an electron. Yaghjian considers a mac- scopic object, a spherical insulator with a surface charge. was therefore not tempted to take the point limit, and he thus avoided the pitfalls that have misguided research in this field since Dirac's famous paper of 1938. Perhaps the author's greatest achievement was the discovery that one does not need to invoke quantum mechanics and the correspondence pr- ciple in order to exclude the unphysical solutions (runaway and pre-acc- eration solutions). Rather, as he discovered, the derivation of the classical equations of motion from the Maxwell-Lorentz equations is invalid when the time rate of change of the dynamical variables too large (even in the relativistic case). Therefore, solutions that show such behavior are inc- sistent consequences. The classical theory thus shown to be physically consistent by itself. It embarrassing--to say the least--that this obs- vation had not been made before.

In retrospect, the first edition of this book now seems like a mere sketch for a book. The present version is, if not the final product, at least a closer approximation to it. The table of contents may show little change. But that is simply because the original organization of the material has been found satisfactory. Also the basic purpose of the book remains the same, and that is to make relativity come alive conceptually. I have always felt much sym pathy with Richard Courant's maxim (as reported and exemplified by Pascual Jordan) that, ideally, proofs should be reached by comprehension rather than computation. Where computations are necessary, I have tried to make them as transparent as possible, so as not to hinder the progress of comprehension. Among the more obvious changes, this edition contains a new section on Kruskal space, another on the plane gravitational wave, and a third on linearized general relativity; it also contains many new exercises, and two appendices: one listing the curvature components for the diagonal metric (in a little more generality than the old" Dingle formulas "), and one syn thesizing Maxwell's theory in tensor form. But the most significant changes and additions have occurred throughout the text. Many sections have been completely rewritten, many arguments tightened, many "asides" added, and, of course, recent developments taken into account.

From the infinitesimal scale of particle physics to the cosmic scale of the universe, research is concerned with the nature of mass. While there have been spectacular advances in physics during the past century, mass still remains a mysterious entity at the forefront of current research. Our current perspective on gravitation has arisen over millennia, through the contemplation of falling apples, lift thought experiments and notions of stars spiraling into black holes. In this volume, the world’s leading scientists offer a multifaceted approach to mass by giving a concise and introductory presentation based on insights from their respective fields of research on gravity. The main theme is mass and its motion within general relativity and other theories of gravity, particularly for compact bodies. Within this framework, all articles are tied together coherently, covering post-Newtonian and related methods as well as the self-force approach to the analysis of motion in curved space-time, closing with an overview of the historical development and a snapshot on the actual state of the art. All contributions reflect the fundamental role of mass in physics, from issues related to Newton’s laws, to the effect of self-force and radiation reaction within theories of gravitation, to the role of the Higgs boson in modern physics. High-precision measurements are described in detail, modified theories of gravity reproducing experimental data are investigated as alternatives to dark matter, and the fundamental problem of reconciling any theory of gravity with the physics of quantum fields is addressed. Auxiliary chapters set the framework for theoretical contributions within the broader context of experimental physics. The book is based upon the lectures of the CNRS School on Mass held in Orléans, France, in June 2008. All contributions have been anonymously refereed and, with the cooperation of the authors, revised by the editors to ensure overall consistency.

Simultaneous Differential Equations and Multi-Dimensional Vibrations is the fourth book within Ordinary Differential Equations with Applications to Trajectories and Vibrations, Six-volume Set. As a set, they are the fourth volume in the series Mathematics and Physics Applied to Science and Technology. This fourth book consists of two chapters (chapters 7 and 8 of the set). The first chapter concerns simultaneous systems of ordinary differential equations and focuses mostly on the cases that have a matrix of characteristic polynomials, namely linear systems with constant or homogeneous power coefficients. The method of the matrix of characteristic polynomials also applies to simultaneous systems of linear finite difference equations with constant coefficients. The second chapter considers linear multi-dimensional oscillators with any number of degrees of freedom including damping, forcing, and multiple resonance. The discrete oscillators may be extended from a finite number of degrees-of-freedom to infinite chains. The continuous oscillators correspond to waves in homogeneous or inhomogeneous media, including elastic, acoustic, electromagnetic, and water surface waves. The combination of propagation and dissipation leads to the equations of mathematical physics. Presents simultaneous systems of ordinary differential equations and their elimination for a single ordinary differential equation Includes cases with a matrix of characteristic polynomials, including simultaneous systems of linear differential and finite difference equations with constant coefficients Covers multi-dimensional oscillators with damping and forcing, including modal decomposition, natural frequencies and coordinates, and multiple resonance Discusses waves in inhomogeneous media, such as elastic, electromagnetic, acoustic, and water waves Includes solutions of partial differential equations of mathematical physics by separation of variables leading to ordinary differential equations

A new title in the Manchester Physics Series, this introductory text emphasises physical principles behind classical mechanics and relativity. It assumes little in the way of prior knowledge, introducing relevant mathematics and carefully developing it within a physics context. Designed to provide a logical development of the subject, the book is divided into four sections, introductory material on dynamics, and special relativity, which is then followed by more advanced coverage of dynamics and special relativity. Each chapter includes problems ranging in difficulty from simple to challenging with solutions for solving problems. Includes solutions for solving problems Numerous worked examples included throughout the book Mathematics is carefully explained and developed within a physics environment Sensitive to topics that can appear daunting or confusing

Semi-technical account includes a review of classical physics (origin of space and time measurements, Ptolemaic and Copernican astronomy, laws of motion, inertia, more) and of Einstein's theories of relativity.

An introduction to Einstein's general theory of relativity, this work is structured so that interesting applications, such as gravitational lensing, black holes and cosmology, can be presented without the readers having to first learn the difficult mathematics of tensor calculus.

In applied mathematics, the name Monte Carlo is given to the method of solving problems by means of experiments with random numbers. This name, after the casino at Monaco, was first applied around 1944 to the method of solving deterministic problems by reformulating them in terms of a problem with random elements, which could then be solved by large-scale sampling. But, by extension, the term has come to mean any simulation that uses random numbers. Monte Carlo methods have become among the most fundamental techniques of simulation in modern science. This book is an illustration of the use of Monte Carlo methods applied to solve specific problems in mathematics, engineering, physics, statistics, and science in general.