Analytical Mechanics [Paperback]

This is a translation of A.I. Luries classical Russian textbook on analytical mechanics. It offers a consummate exposition of the subject of analytical mechanics through a deep analysis of its most fundamental concepts. The book has served as a desk text for at least two generations of researchers working in those fields where the Soviet Union accomplished the greatest technological breakthrough of the 20th century - a race into space. Those and other related fields continue to be intensively explored since then, and the book clearly demonstrates how the fundamental concepts of mechanics work in the context of up-to-date engineering problems.

According to established tradition, courses on analytical mechanics include general equations of motion of holonomic and non-holonomic systems, vari? ational principles, theory of canonical transformations, canonical equations and theory of their integration (the Hamilton-Jacobi theorem), integral in? variants, theory of last multiplier and others. The fundamental laws of mechanics are taken for granted and are not subject to discussion. The present book is concerned with those issues of the above listed sub? jects which, in the author's opinion, are most closely related to engineering problems. Application of the methods of analytical mechanics to non-trivial prob? lems at the very stage of constructing the equations requires detailed knowl? edge of the issues that are normally only briefly touched upon. With this perspective considerable attention is paid to ways of introducing the gener? alised coordinates, the theory of finite rotation, methods of calculating the kinetic energy, the energy of accelerations, the potential energy of forces of various nature, and the resisting forces. These introductory chapters, which have to some extent independent significance, are followed by those on methods of constructing differential equations of motion for holonomic and non-holonomic systems in various forms. In thlCk