once again, another crappy grad physics book. difficult problems that don't really teach you a damn thing. the flow is incoherent and leaves out key steps in derivations.

An outstandingly good quality book, both in content and in the book itself. Very satisfied.

I gave this book a 4-star because some parts of it are in fact not so clearly written, as some of the previous reviewers have pointed out. Yet it is probably the only book out there that explains classical mechanics at the level of sophistication and comprehensiveness suitable for an advanced physics student. This book is aimed at the graduate audience but in my opinion any undergraduate students with a solid introductory mechanics course should have no problem understanding most of the materials in this book though I have to admit that the authors did not do a very good job in explaining the concepts.



A distinct feature of this book is that it tries to teach classical mechanics in a way that illuminates many analogous approaches in quantum theory. By this I mean the theoretical constructions such as the Hamilton-Jacobi theory, Poisson brackets, canonical perturbation theory, relativistic field theory, and so on. This book is probably a must read for beginners of theoretical physics because some of the theoretical methods exploited here appear almost ubiquitously in other fields of physics. In the study of other subjects of physics, I was often reminded of the little bits of things I picked up from this book: variational principles, tensors and forms, symmetry groups, field theoretical ideas, etc.



Of course, the main goal of this book is to introduce the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulations of classical mechanics. The book is actually strong in this aspect. The first few chapters I think are very well written, especially the chapter on central force which is the most thorough treatment I have seen. There are things one hardly sees in other books of this type, such as the Lenz vector which would find a beautiful use in the quantum Kepler problem. However, the book tends to lose clarity in the latter chapters. The three chapters on Hamiltonian mechanics can be much better written. The chapter on chaos serves as nothing but a really rough introduction. Readers interested in these areas will probably benefit better by looking at other books written exclusively on Hamiltonian dynamics or chaos.



After all this is a good book mostly because I haven't yet found any other book at this level that does a better job. If one finds it difficult to read I would suggest getting the book by Marion and Thornton which contains many step-by-step derivations and tons of examples and in my opinion serves as a great companion to this book. Another book at almost the same level is the legendary book by Landau which is extremely concise and get-to-the-point. So some people may like Landau's style better. However, in my opinion, no other books can really replace this one as a comprehensive treatment of classical mechanics.

I gave this book a 4-star because some parts of it are in fact not so clearly written, as some of the previous reviewers have pointed out. Yet it is probably the only book out there that explains classical mechanics at the level of sophistication and comprehensiveness suitable for an advanced physics student. This book is aimed at the graduate audience but in my opinion any undergraduate students with a solid introductory mechanics course should have no problem understanding most of the materials in this book though I have to admit that the authors did not do a very good job in explaining the concepts.

A distinct feature of this book is that it tries to teach classical mechanics in a way that illuminates many analogous approaches in quantum theory. By this I mean the theoretical constructions such as the Hamilton-Jacobi theory, Poisson brackets, canonical perturbation theory, relativistic field theory, and so on. This book is probably a must read for beginners of theoretical physics because some of the theoretical methods exploited here appear almost ubiquitously in other fields of physics. In the study of other subjects of physics, I was often reminded of the little bits of things I picked up from this book: variational principles, tensors and forms, symmetry groups, field theoretical ideas, etc.

Of course, the main goal of this book is to introduce the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulations of classical mechanics. The book is actually strong in this aspect. The first few chapters I think are very well written, especially the chapter on central force which is the most thorough treatment I have seen. There are things one hardly sees in other books of this type, such as the Lenz vector which would find a beautiful use in the quantum Kepler problem. However, the book tends to lose clarity in the latter chapters. The three chapters on Hamiltonian mechanics can be much better written. The chapter on chaos serves as nothing but a really rough introduction. Readers interested in these areas will probably benefit better by looking at other books written exclusively on Hamiltonian dynamics or chaos.

After all this is a good book mostly because I haven't yet found any other book at this level that does a better job. If one finds it difficult to read I would suggest getting the book by Marion and Thornton which contains many step-by-step derivations and tons of examples and in my opinion serves as a great companion to this book. Another book at almost the same level is the legendary book by Landau which is extremely concise and get-to-the-point. So some people may like Landau's style better. However, in my opinion, no other books can really replace this one as a comprehensive treatment of classical mechanics.

Goldstein may not be the best graduate-level mechanics text ever written but it is the standard, so there's no getting around it. I found many of the explanations and examples to skip over steps that did not seem obvious or intuitive, so if you're going to be using this book (which is probably unavoidable if you're looking for it on Amazon) then I'd recommend that you have access to an undergraduate mechanics text like "Analytical Mechanics" by Fowles and Cassidy or "Classical Dynamics" by Thornton and Marion.

Goldsteins Classical Mechanics is a standard reference in intermediate theoretical physics, suitable for second year theoretical, and third year experimental physics. Its contents include material beyond the scope of two periods, but most of the material can be covered during this time.
Classical mechanics is a mathematically modest treatment of mechanics, and the most advanced topic included is calculus of variation. However, most topics are given a rigorous treatment, and when this is not available a reference is given. Examples are somewhat sparse in the book as this is not a solution manual but a treatment of physical theory. However, working out exercises is essential for understanding the text and this is for many a turning-point, the exercises are not easy and do not simplify like problems of basic courses. But for those who work a great award awaits.
The last chapter of the book is an introduction to Chaos, with emphasis on aplication. For a more rigourous treatment differential geometry, the language of mechanics, and algebra is needed. However, it is clear that this would take the book beyond an introduction to mechanics, which it only is.
For those who have motivation and a good lecturer with notes to support the book, such as more examples, Goldsteins Classical mechanics is excellent. A note should be made, the book is probably too hard for sensible self-study, conversation and insight of others is invaluable.

So much of physics (from electromagnetism, quantum mechanics, quantum fields to statistical mechanics) depends on the classical variational notions of Lagrangian mechanics, Hamiltonian mechanics, Poisson Brackets, and their cousin versions. Goldstein (2nd. ed. for me) is the place to master these and other key concepts.

HOWEVER, before I began Goldstein, by pure luck, I stumbled onto an old, 1961, out-of-print translated Russian book on the Calculus of Variations by L. Elsgolc. What a treasure! Using notation and verbiage confortable to physicists, this little book, requiring a minimum backgroud of 1 year of undergraduate calculus, builds up in a very deep but intuitive way the foundations beneath the variational formulations of mechancis. If you can't get this book, then find one that fits you and learn calculus of variations BEFORE jumping into a graduate mechanics course. It will pay off in a deep understanding of mechanics, statistical mechanics, electromagnetism and quantum mechanics and field theories. I also suggest the historical Dover book "Variational Principles in Dynamics and Quantum Theory" by Yourgrau and Mandlestam.

Alex Alaniz Ph.D.

1. Please see the reviews of my own strong science fiction book: Beyond Future Shock about the near-terms perils and promise of advanced bio/nano technology in a world still roiled with Middle Age religious conflict and ever growing extreme wealth gradients.

2. I have REVIEWED many books from undergraduate to graduate in: PHYSICS, MATH, ECONOMETRICS, and HISTORY among other areas.

I will not tell you about the glorious life Dr. Goldstein lived, or his personality or his beliefs, I think a reader is more concerned about his work -especially- as a student. His book classical mechanics is known to be one of the most famous throughout the world, like to form an episdemological basis for the scientists working in this field. In my oppinion it is not the best book in this field, I am sorry to be compelled to confess this. The book is written with a motivation to put you in a mode of awe: "Oh man this guy has read all these material, 25000 books , Oh my God!". But in fact he is like vomiting all the information on you, or at least in a way that looks like unprocessed food. A good book for some topics like central force fields etc, unique in Canonical transformations and Poisson Brackets, but let us be honest for a while and ask ourselves: Are there better books may be for a Physics student? I think there are: Marion`s Classical Mechanics is a very nice book for starters. The book by Walter Greiner is also a nice book in my oppinion, with all its exercises, and chapters on Chaos and non linear theory. The book by Friedhelm Kuypers is also another nice book, the unfortunate thing is it is called Klassische Mekanik, -in German-, no body ever traslated it. Let us give all the best credit to Professor Goldstein for his contributions to Orthodox Jewish society and science as well, but be aware of the fact that his book is not a Bible in this field, let me kindly just say that the book was not his greatest achievement. So, you will buy the book for your graduate class, what should you do then? Solve all the problems, and discuss the solutions with the people arround. Do not get exhausted with the never ending math, consider it a life style, as it would be when you really jump into research one way or another. Use the references well, take your time, try to enjoy, cause you will not have any other choice but this book in the graduate school.

Herbert Goldstein, Professor Emeritus of Nuclear Science and Engineering at Columbia, died on Jan. 12. He was 82.

Goldstein, long recognized for his scholarship in classical mechanics and reactor shielding, was the author of the graduate textbook, Classical Mechanics. The book has been a standard text since it first appeared 50 years ago and has been translated into nine languages. Goldstein's contributions to nuclear energy were honored by the U.S. Department of Energy, which awarded him the E.O. Lawrence Memorial Award in 1962. In 1977, he was the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from the shielding division of the American Nuclear Society.

Goldstein was a professor of nuclear science and engineering at the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science since 1961. He received the Great Teacher Award, given by the Society of Columbia Graduates, in 1976. In 1984, Goldstein was the first to hold the Thomas Alva Edison Professorship at the University.

In addition to research, Goldstein devoted time to promoting scientific literacy by teaching undergraduate courses. In 1977, he taught a course he designed to increase scientific understanding of energy issues -- "Nuclear Energy: A Semi-technical View for the Non-scientist." He was also one of the faculty members instrumental in developing an innovative science course for non-scientists, "The Theory and Practice of Science," at the College.

Goldstein was a consultant for Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory. He was a fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Nuclear Society, the New York Academy of Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Goldstein also was a member of the American Association of Physics Teachers and was a founding member and president of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists. He received a B.S. from City College of New York in 1940 and a Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1943.

He is survived by his wife, Channa; his children, Penina, Aaron Meir and Shoshanna; and 10 grandchildren.

This is an excellent way to learn classical mechanics. Actually, I prefer Landau's book. But Landau's book is about 170 pages and this one is about 650 pages.

And you get much more material with this book. The book is readable, and there are plenty of useful exercises. You start off with Lagrange's equations. Then you learn a little about the calculus of variations. And then the central force problem, kinematics of rigid body motion, and oscillations. And there's material on Hamilton's equations, canonical transformations, and Hamilton-Jacobi theory. In this manner, the text covers in 420 pages what Landau does in 170. There are more explanations and more examples. It's not a bad way to learn the subject.

In addition, there are chapters on special relativity, chaos, canonical perturbation theory, and continuous systems and fields. These are good topics to cover in a upper division class on mechanics. This book has a lot to offer a student and would be fun to teach from.

This is a superb book for graduate level mechanics. It is complete and rigorous. It is a bit pricy, so look for used copies. The second edition is more standard since there is a lot of new notation in the third. There are a handful of minor typos that a careful read will weed out.

I read the first printing of the third edition.

Cons first.

Some material has been deleted: the discussions of stability, some historical notes along the discussions, correspondence between HJ and Schrodinger Eqn, etc. The nice further references and notes to various other books in the end of each chapter has been omitted, the same thing happen to the extensive bibliography. A lot of typos appear in this new edition. And still no attempts to include advanced mathematical methods from differential geometry, except when discussing SR. Also, no attempt to include some worked examples. The discussions on classical fields has been shortened, a regret if we remember the need to leard classical fields before step into quantum fields.

Pros.

The book became more accessible, in fact some undergrads might be able to cope with this, either after Marion-Thornton or somewhere in the junior-senior year. The discussions on SR use the standard -2 metric instead of the awkward ict. Several discussions on one-forms and GR appeared. More problems. Also there is a new chapter in nonlinear oscillations

Suggestions.

If you want a modern book on classical mechanics check also J.V. Jose and E.J. Saletan, Classical Dynamics: A Contemporary Approach ... it offers roughly the same material PLUS advanced treatment with geometrical methods and differential geometry, and there are extensive discussions on nonlinear dynamics and classical fields. I recommend some instructors to adapt Jose & Saletan for their class, since it is cheaper, more modern, than Goldstein.

This book is superb in its content, especially about the logical structure of the chapters organized. There are no other texts can match this.

The problems are also challanging. If you're looking for an excellent mechanics book with the "conventional" mathematics (meaning: no use of differential geometry/topology/global analysis), then this is the one you should buy.

In my experience this book is alright when I took the course. In working environment, I found that it is not very useful. The reason is that it lacks organization and it presents not a single topic thouroughly and clearly, and thus I need to read other books that are more specialized.

A friend of mine, who is very good in mathematics, agrees with me on this. To him, Mechanics by Symon is a much better book.

There is a good deal of material in this book, including almost every mathematical tool one could possibly use in classical mechanics. However, the title gives no warning of the scope of the book. Be warned: a one semester introductory physics course does not begin to provide the background needed just to get started in this book. With some background in variational calculus and Lagrangian mechanics, the first few chapters are fairly straightforward and very informational. The alternative development of Lagrange's principle from the principle of virtual work is extremely useful in providing a greater understanding of the subject. However, after the first few chapters, the topics become increasingly difficult and there are some points where a more in depth discussion would be prudent. If anything, they provide insight on how far from trivial classical mechanics is. This book is not for everyone, especially not the weak of heart, but a serious student of mechanics will find it invaluable.

As an advanced undergrad, this text was the most fun, easiest to read and work through, of any I'd read. It was a real pleasure to learn from it. Later in life I found that I did not need it at all as background for research. The reason for this is that the book is strong on formalism but weak on analysis of hard problems. The problem with the text is that it was written in the age when classical mechanics was thought to be useful mainly as preparation for studying quantum mechanics, and the later emphasis on canonical perturbation theory as background for studying accelerator physics still did not distinguish integrable from nonintegrable systems.

The text is useful for learning Lagrangian formalism, Poisson brackets and the formulation of Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formalism for fields. However, it provides only integrable examples-the newest version throws a too-often chewed bone in the direction of 'chaos', but otherwise the examples and problems are of the globally integrable type. Worse, global integrability is implicitly assumed but is then confused with local integrability via the trivially correct claim that initial conditions are adequate for solving Hamilton's equations via backward in time integration. Liouville's integrability theorem, the condition for the existence of a global canonical transformation to action angle variables (or for solving the H-J pde globally) is not even mentioned. For a treatment of Classical Mechanics (including damped, driven Newtonian systems) from the standpoint of the methods of modern nonlinear dynamics, see my book Classical Mechanics (Cambridge, 1997).

This book was originally written in 1950. Inspite of its age, it is still a masterpiece in its kind. The author's approach is very attentive to developing the physical intuition, which makes the book an easy reading. The breadth of coverage is remarkable: along with relativity (and a bit of electromagnetism), it covers the mechanics of continua, too. The wide coverage more than pays back the effort of reading the relatively long text. Last but not least, the book is very well suited for self-study thanks to both its clarity and the many exercises provided (without solutions, unfortunately). Overall, it's still unsurpassed if you want to understand mechanics by yourself at the beginning graduate level. For the sake of this purpose, neither Landau not Arnold (two other masterpieces) come close. Rather, I recommend you to first read Goldstein and some time later read Arnold.

This is a far better book than any other book on Classical Mechanics that I have come across. This one starts with simple things and goes on to develop the ideas quite lucidly and logically - which lack in Landau. The explanations do help in understanding what the author is trying to establish.

This is a good book for an advanced undergraduate to learn classical mechanics from, and also for the beginning graduate student who didn't learn about some of the somewhat more advanced topics in the subject, like the theory of canonical transformations and the Hamilton-Jacobi theory (I fell into the later camp, by the way). Yes, Landau is more concise and elegant, but for me at least it has served better as a reference now that I have mastered Goldstein (Landau is an excellent author, but I believe I am not alone in saying that it is very difficult to learn a subject for the first time from his books!)

Unlike other reviewers, I have no substantial complaints about the problems. Granted, there are some that are not very deep, but you can simply skip those if you like! And I find them nowhere near as difficult as Jackson problems!

By the way, I encourage you to read with a skeptical eye - I found several mistakes and typos in the book. Perhaps there is a catalog of these somewhere on the Addison-Wesley web site?

Oh, one final thing - I think it is out of line to compare this book with Abraham and Marsden - they have totally different objectives. Goldstein's aim is to develop in the student a solid grasp of the **basics** of mechanics - one must master Goldstein (or a book like it) before he or she understands the subject well enough to even decide whether Abraham and Marsden is a worthwhile endeavour!

Even more then 30 years later, this book is still the standard in mechanics for graduate courses. Working through it will give an excellent understanding of mechanics. However, due to its age it falls a little short on some areas such as relativity. It woudl need an overhaul here. Yet, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it, so it should not be misunderstood here. What is needed here is an update on more recent developments in relativity and this is the primary reason why I couldn't give it a five star. Also, if one studies Goldstein first, then working on Jackson's Electrodynamics poses relatively little problems since the mathematical level is effectively the same as required in both books. Nevertheless, starting with Goldstein will be easier then with Jackson.

I feel this is a poor textbook. There are few examples of the treatments. The exercises are not concise, they don't get at specific points, he makes the details more elaborate than he needs to. Overall I think people say they like it because it is a strong theoretical presentation.. It is not to be used for you to apply what is in the text.. If if what about applications there would be more examples (some chapters simply don't have any) and the problems (no answers supplied by the way) would be more suited to applications than just interesting digressions.. I have had to buy this book for a course, I plan to sell it immediately once I'm done with it. I think this is one of the poorest choices of a text you can use.

This is probably the best treatment of Classical Mechanics I've ever read, though, as with anything, it could use some improvement. My only gripe is the usual one with texts like this: There are few if any specific physical instances of formulations that so often serve as a watershed of understanding in physics. For example, in the derivation of the Langrangian, and finally the Hamiltonian, no point for point physical example (say, with a central force like gravity) is offered. It would be nice to see a step by step description of how the Riemann sum over time of the difference in kinetic and potential energies changes as different paths are chosen. I did this and it was beautiful and incredibly enlightening. Once you can _see_ that kind of behavior, you're powerful! It is then easy to generalize to any abstract system. But all else was excellent. If you really want to learn Mechanics, you must start with Goldstein. Recommended preliminaries: Stewart's Calculus; Schaum's Linear Algebra; Halliday, Resnick and Walker's Fundamentals of Physics and Symon's Mechanics.

Goldstein's "Classical Mechanics" appeared at the right time. The development of quantum mechanics demanded familiarity with methods of advanced mechanics that no student of physics had been introduced to. Dirac told in a semminar that he didn't know what a Poisson bracket was, when he was constructing his version ot quantum mechanics (where Poisson brackets play a fundamental role). Heisenberg didn't know matrices, in similar circumstances. Max Born did know these things, and actually wrote a superb book on mechanics using them, but it was in German, at an advanced level and called Mechanics of the Atom. The book then available in English was the formidable Whittaker "Analytical Dynamics", whose exercises took sometimes a whole page just to be stated! In this panorama, in the fifties, Addison-Wesley published the beautifully produced Goldstein. It was an instant sensation. In the introduction the author candidly confessed that, in his opinion, a cou! rse in mechanics justified itself only as a preparation for quantum mechanics, and that was clearly the slant of the book. It was extremely well written, except for a disastrous chapter on the Hamilton-Jacobi equation. The exercises were not at the level of the text: you found much better ones in Slater, Frank's "Mechanics", for instance. The references were excellent, commented, and gave the reader a sense of perspective (and of awe, in the company of men like Riemann, Born, Weber...). I loved the book and hated the Hamilton-Jacobi equation. Later on the slim book by Landau, Lifshitz, "Mechanics", entered the scene and showed that Goldstein's program could be made better, briefer, and that the Hamilton-Jacobi equation, clearly and sensibly derived, was the jewel of the crown. Not only, in the subsequent volumes of their Theoretical Physics course, they showed how invaluable this Hamilton-Jacobi was, by applying it with great skill in all kinds of problems.! Then, finally, it became clear that mechanics was not dead! : the whole affair of stability, chaos, etc, exploded, and it became impossible to consider mechanics just as a ladder to quantum mechanics. So, even the philosophy of the venerable Goldstein had to be forgotten. Still, Goldstein's Classical Mechanics is alive, possibly now more Classical than Mechanics.

There are more books on classical mechanics than there are students of the subject. Goldsteins book is one that just seems to of been around forever.Even though this was written in 1980 he has deliberatley avoided the 'modern' developments such as Abraham and Marsden and the towering genius of 20th century mechanics Arnold. This is no place for diffeomorphisms or invariant tori. Perhaps these days the best use for a book like Goldstein is to have it along side A&M to translate from the old language to the new and vice versa. At the end of each chapter there is a guide to other texts on the same or related topics. Very well written and very amusing.