الصفحة 1
الصفحة 1
Mechanics : From Newton's Laws to Deterministic Chaos
This updated and revised fourth edition covers all topics in mechanics from elementary Newtonian mechanics, canonical and rigid body mechanics to relativistic mechanics and nonlinear dynamics. In particular, symmetries and invariance principles, geometrical structures and continuum mechanics play an important role. This book will enable the reader to develop general principles from which equations of motions may be derived, to understand the importance of symmetries as a basis for quantum mechanics and to get practice in using theoretical tools and concepts that are essential for all branches of physics. The book contains numerous problems with complete solutions, and some practical examples.This will be appreciated in particular by students using the text to accompnay lectures on mechanics. The book ends with some historical remarks on important pioneers in mechanics.
Elements for Physics : Quantities, Qualities, and Intrinsic Theories
While usual presentations of physical theories emphasize the notion of physical quantity, this book shows that there is much to gain when introducing the notion of physical quality. The usual physical quantities simply appear as coordinates over the manifolds representing the physical qualities. This allows to develop physical theories that have a degree of invariance much deeper than the usual one. It is shown that properly developed physical theories contain logarithms and exponentials of tensors: their conspicuous absence in usual theories suggests, in fact, that the fundamental invariance principle stated in this book is lacking in present-day mathematical physics. The book reviews and extends the theory if Lie groups, develops differential geometry, proposing compact definitions of torsion and of curvature, and adapts the usual notion of linear tangent application to the intrinsic point of view proposed for physics. As an illustration, two simple theories are studied with some detail, the theory of heat conduction and the theory of linear elastic media. The equations found differ quantitatively and qualitatively from those usually presented.
Laws of Nature
The book is concerned with the laws of nature and in particular with the laws of physics. The authors discuss three important questions: First, whether the observed regularities are based on strict "laws of nature" that hold rigorously and without any exception. Second, what we call a "law of nature" is studied by comparing this concept with invariance principles, causality principles, teleological principles and means of predicting future events. Finally, on the basis of these investigations the authors treat the ambitious and intricate third question, why the laws of nature hold. Are there rational reasons for this largely unexplained phenomenon? This book addresses students as well as researchers. It will be an excellent reference for those interested in the philosophical foundations of the natural sciences.
