Learning classical mechanics doesn’t have to be hard and boring

What if there was a way to learn classical mechanics without all the usual fluff? What if there were a book that allowed you to see the whole picture and not just tiny parts of it?

Thoughts like this are the reason that No-Nonsense Classical Mechanics, the most student-friendly classical mechanics textbook ever written, now exists.

PS: Right now you can get the ebook for $15 by using the discount code “corona” on the checkout page at Gumroad.

Finally understand what classical mechanics is really all about.

A solid understanding of classical mechanics is essential for anyone interested in physics. With this book, you will become familiar with all the fundamental concepts commonly used in classical mechanics and you’ll understand the meaning of all important equations. 

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What will you learn from this book?

Get to know all fundamental mechanics concepts — Grasp why we can describe classical mechanics using the Lagrangian formalism, the Newtonian formalism, or the Hamiltonian formalism and how these frameworks are connected.

Learn how to describe classical mechanics mathematically —Understand the meaning and origin of the most important equations: Newton's second law, the Euler-Lagrange equation and Hamilton's equations.

Master the most important classical mechanics systems — Read fully annotated, step-by-step calculations and understand the general algorithm we use to describe them.

Get an understanding you can be proud of —Learn about beautiful and deep insights like Noether's theorem or Liouville's theorem and how classical mechanics emerges in a proper limit of special relativity, quantum mechanics and general relativity.

What’s inside?

  • A complete bird’s-eye view of the most important ideas
  • Extensive discussion of the most useful tricks and methods used in classical mechanics
  • A thorough derivation of all fundamental aspects of the frameworks that we use to describe classical mechanics
  • Chapters on the key ideas behind our modern understanding of classical mechanics as an approximation to more fundamental theories like special relativity, quantum mechanics and general relativity.
  • 10+ book recommendations that allow you easily to dive deeper, depending on your specialized interests
  • Appendices that summarize essential mathematical concepts such as the Legendre transform, the Taylor series, and Lagrange multipliers.
  • and more…

Who should read this book?

Students of Physics
  • Finally, understand what your professor is talking about.
  • Get a broad understanding that goes far beyond what 80% of all students will ever know.
  • Learn methods that you need to master everywhere in modern physics.

Interested "Outsiders"

  • Grasp why classical mechanics remains as one of the cornerstones of modern physics.
  • Develop an understanding far beyond the standard popular science discussions.
  • No-Nonsense Classical Mechanics is ideal for busy people since it focuses solely on what's really important and cuts out all the fluff and overcomplication.
Lecturers
  • Get inspiration for your lectures thanks to novel explanations not found anywhere else.
  • Read extensive discussions about aspects of classical mechanics that are not included in the standard books.

How does this book help you?

Dozens of illustrations help you understand classical mechanics more effectively.

No-Nonsense Classical Mechanics is the most student-friendly book on classical mechanics ever written.

Here’s why.

First of all, the book is nothing like a formal university lecture.  Instead, it’s like a casual conservation with a more experienced student. For example, this means that nothing is assumed to be “obvious” or “easy to see”.

Fully annotated equations allow you to follow the steps in any calculation immediately. No more re-reading or endless searching for equations.

Each chapter, each section, and each page focusses solely on the goal of helping you understand. Nothing is introduced without an explanation why you should care about it and it is always clear where each equation comes from.

The book contains no fluff since unnecessary content quickly leads to confusion. Instead, it ruthlessly focusses on the fundamentals and makes sure you understand them in detail.

Hundreds of sidenotes help you to recall the most important facts whenever they are needed.

The primary focus on readers’ needs is also visible in dozens of small features that you won’t find in any other textbook.

  • In total, the book contains more than 150 illustrations that help you understand the most important concepts visually.
  • In each chapter, you’ll find fully annotated equations and calculations are done carefully step-by-step. This makes it much easier to understand what’s going on in.

Key ideas and equations are highlighted such that it’s always immediately clear what’s really important.

  • Whenever a concept is mentioned again after its initial introduction, it is accompanied by a short side-note reminding you where you read it before and often repeating important details.

Multiple overview diagrams help you to understand the connections between the most important concepts and ideas.

  • Summaries at the beginning of each chapter make sure you never get lost.

About the author

 

Hey! My name is Jakob and I’m a theoretical physicist based in Karlsruhe, Germany. My passion is finding the simplest possible explanations for seemingly complex topics and one of my favorite mantras is: “any scientist who can’t explain to an eight-year-old what he is doing is a charlatan.”

This is the common theme in all my projects.

Reach me on Twitter or by email.

Praise for Jakob Schwichtenberg’s Books

 

The problem is that we are not actually taught this stuff and so we just kind of perform the drunkard’s walk on the path to understanding the material. But your text has already been tremendously insightful and I am only on page 52!

Nicholas Valverde

I am a student in the elite master course in theoretical and mathematical physics at LMU and I recently started to study your book. Needless to say, it is a masterpiece. I fully agree with everything you wrote in it. This is exactly the book a physics student needs.

Federico Roccati

This is a quite wonderful text in the sense that it is very down to Earth and doesn't assume you are a genius who can fill in the details from the sky [...]  I'm glad I spent the money on this book, it contains a lot of important physical insights as to why the mathematics work the way it does. Not every physics author does this, nor for mathematicians either.

Marcus Quinn Rodriguez Tenes

Really helped me understand what was going on in my undergraduate degree.

Naim Hussain

First let me tell you that I liked your book a lot . It is the best introduction to physics I have read in a long time .

Rudy Blyweert

I really love this book, since I at last have found a lucid text that I can read on the train, sitting in a park etc.

G. Ullman

Undergraduates, today and in the future, are so lucky to have this book. It’s the book I wish I had as an undergraduate, it would have saved a lot of time and misplaced effort. Future undergraduates will not have to experience the frustration of trawling through various dense texts, on topics within this new book, but were written for a much more advanced reader.

toonsoldier

I must say that you have done the current and future generations of undergraduates, as well as interested self-studying amateurs such as myself, a tremendous service by applying the logical structure and clarity of your writing to this often difficult topic.
Indeed, I wish this book had been available many years ago when I was an undergraduate, it would have alleviated years of confusion.

Paul Wakefield

This is the book I’ve been looking for all these years – a clear, concise, well-written summary, from an introductory level, of advanced (for me, at least) physics topics [...]

As a retirement project, I’ve been determined to self-teach and update myself on the Physics topics I missed starting 50 years ago when, being bored with the books and courses as taught at the time, I dropped Physics for other pursuits.
However, I’ve never lost my interest and your book is clarifying and helping greatly to rekindle my efforts to complete this item on my bucket list.  If only I’d had you as a teacher years ago!

Dave Pendleton

This is a fantastic book that deserves the widest possible audience. [...]  So I am finally gaining a deep understanding on the character of physical law; this approach has profound explanatory power. If you have ever wondered why nature is the way it is and not some other, this book can give you new tools to approaching an answer. Overall, a very fine, deep physics book.

Jandro Kirkish

Well done! Easy to follow as a self-study text, and one that I would recommend to any undergraduate or older graduate.

James Gort

We want to make sure that our books are as helpful as possible. We encourage our readers to discuss the content of the book with each other and give us feedback on everything they like or dislike.

For this reason, we release only 100 initial copies of each book. This makes sure that we can participate in the discussions and no feedback gets lost in our inbox.

After the first 100 copies are sold we update the book based on the feedback we received. (This process takes some time and there is no fixed date.) Afterward, we will release another limited number of copies at a higher price. If you missed the first 100 initial copies, make sure to sign up below to get notified when we release further copies.

If you buy the book now you will receive a free digital copy of all future editions.

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FAQ

 

What if I want to buy the eBook and the paperback version? Do I get a discount?

You can buy both versions on Amazon. And, yes, you will get a discount.

I’m a non-native speaker. Will it be hard for me to understand your book?
No. The book is written in simple language, and each technical term is carefully explained.

I have a question. How can I contact you?
Please contact me via email: mail [at] jakobschwichtenberg.com