Lagrangian Mechanics For The Non-Physicist (The Modern Physics Series)

Great book, everything is clearly explained, includes step by step equation manipulation so you can follow along, gives very good examples, draws appropriate parallels so you can call upon previous knowledge you might have. The only suggestion would be to have numbered each equation to help with following the derivations (but I guess the lack of numbered equations forced me to really understand/follow each step). Overall great book for both variational calculus & Lagrangian mechanics. Thanks Ville! ChrisI should add, there are minor typos in the formulas in a few places but the Appendix Longer Calculations seems to have it all correct. Ie: pg 211 vs pg 382

This is a GREAT introduction to a topic I'd been intending to learn for some time. I speak as a physics major (long ago) then as an EE Prof. for 26 years (!).Pros:1) Well organized2) Super clear discussion of the various points, including the WHY behind the equations. I really appreciated the down to earth, conversational style.3) He fills in LOTS of the steps for many of the derivations and examples4) By the time I finished the book, I felt like I had a good grasp of the basicsCons:1) poor editing - typos, equations that printed out wrong (like an arrow in the wrong place) and more2) No HW sets - this is NOT a textbook3) The wording in the text could be a bit repetitive - maybe AI assisted? The author, as near as I can tell, is a Finnish grad student. Being a grad student can be a good thing - he's closer in age to students new to this topic.That said, for the price, for what I learned, this is maybe the best price paid to what I learned ratio of just about any science book I have read.Recommended - as an introduction, or to fill in the blanks if you took this course and came away mystified.

Theoretical physicist here - this book is a great journey through the world of Lagrangian Mechanics. The themes are good, the examples are interesting, and most importantly, it's all basically correct. It lacks some rigor, but I don't think the author is going for that. There certainly is an aspect of Lagrangian Mechanics that should be focused on awe and wonder, and this books picks out that thread extremely well.I have to say that - despite the title - I don't know who the audience is. If you are not a physicist, it doesn't seem to me that you'd have the background to follow the book. You at least need several semesters of calculus, and a differential equation course would be helpful too. So who are the non-physicists this book is targeting? I can see an interested undergraduate, or working graduate student, using this book as a study guide *for sure*, but again - not in fields other then physics.Still, I don't want to take away from the quality of the book as a text - it reads the way my colleagues and I talk about Lagrangian Mechanics, which is a great thing!

Expanded coverage of topic for people with some background already. Would get five stars if it had an index.

My goal in Graduate School was a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics, but that was sidetracked by the Vietnam draft. My year was the first they drafted Graduate students. That was not the end of my world, and other doors opened up for me. But that did not stop me from having the nagging itch to at least be able to visualize what I had hoped to learn in a QFT course.Along the way, I purchased numerous books on the subject, but each started assuming I had a conceptual picture of how the pieces fit together. Then, they proceeded to dive into the advance math swimming pool, leaving me on the poolside trying to understand how it all worked. While my studies produced some observations, the visual picture I sought was not happening.Ville's two volumes are the books I have been seeking for over Fifty years. His approach explains the conceptual framework up front and then shows how the mathematics implements that framework. I have lost count of how many times in reading his books, I have had lights going off with the insights that my Graduate courses should have taught me. I now go back and reread chapters in other books that I have struggled with and finally understand what they are telling me.What about Ville's title "...for nonphysicists"? It might seem it is filled with hand-wavy discussions intended for casual readers, and not for those who truly want to understand the subject. But his books are much more. He begins each section with a qualitative description of how the pieces fit together. And if that is sufficient, you can stop there and feel you have accomplished something.But using that framework as a roadmap, he then goes through the mathematical model that implements Lagrangian Mechanics and Field Theory. While you do not need to work through the calculations in detail, you see the equations that are the starting point of many other texts and finally understand their motivation.In short, Ville's efforts have resonated with my picture-oriented approach to Advanced Physics, and enabled me to visually understand what I have always known had to be there. So many Physics instructors start off with the math and never truly explain the framework surrounding the Physics game. In short, you cannot play a sport without understanding the rules within which the game is played. This is what Ville has provided.Ville has achieved his goal of making the foundations of advanced Physics accessible, and I have not seen another set of books that does so as effectively. If that is your goal, it will be money well spent to purchase both volumes.

Sort of a Lagrangian Mechanics for Dummies, this book is probably better as a succinct review than as an introduction. I found it worth while to get back into a topic I’ve been away from for awhile.

I'm an old physicist going back and revisiting LD. The title says the book is for non-physicists, but, if you're a physicist, don't let that put you off. It starts out with very elementary, but carefully selected, topics with the intent of emphasizing areas of possible later confusion.What if you're not a physicist? I personally think you should be comfortable with calculus and elementary differential equations as well as the use of unit vectors. The author tries to cover that, but I don't think this is the book for learning those subjects, and you pretty much have to know them to make much use of LD.