The book presents a unified and well-developed approach to the dynamics of angular motions of rigid bodies subjected to perturbation torques of different physical nature. It contains both the basic foundations of the rigid body dynamics and of the asymptotic method of averaging. The rigorous approach based on the averaging procedure is applicable to bodies with arbitrary ellipsoids of inertia. Action of various perturbation torques, both external (gravitational, aerodynamical, solar pressure) and internal (due to viscous fluid in tanks, elastic and visco-elastic properties of a body) is considered in detail. The book can be used by researchers, engineers and students working in attitude dynamics of spacecraft.

While the physical sciences are a continuously evolving source of technology and of understanding about our world, they have become so specialized and rely on so much prerequisite knowledge that for many people today the divide between the sciences and the humanities seems even greater than it was when C. P. Snow delivered his famous 1959 lecture, "The Two Cultures." In A Cultural History of Physics, Hungarian scientist and educator Károly Simonyi succeeds in bridging this chasm by describing the experimental methods and theoretical interpretations that created scientific knowledge, from ancient times to the present day, within the cultural environment in which it was formed. Unlike any other work of its kind, Simonyi’s seminal opus explores the interplay of science and the humanities to convey the wonder and excitement of scientific development throughout the ages. These pages contain an abundance of excerpts from original resources, a wide array of clear and straightforward explanations, and an astonishing wealth of insight, revealing the historical progress of science and inviting readers into a dialogue with the great scientific minds that shaped our current understanding of physics. Beautifully illustrated, accurate in its scientific content and broad in its historical and cultural perspective, this book will be a valuable reference for scholars and an inspiration to aspiring scientists and humanists who believe that science is an integral part of our culture.

This volume collects my shorter articles on the history of mechanics, some already published in various places, some revised from earlier papers, and some never published before. All of them began as lectures, and here they are printed as such, little changed from the last times I read them out to an audience. While the several articles concern different aspects of mechanics, overlap and even some repetition could not be avoided, since mechanics is one great science, and the same original oftentimes served more than one end in its growth. My three major historical treatises, which were published in Volumes (II) 11 , 2 12, and 13 of L. Euleri Opera Omnia, are not included. To simplify the printing I have also mostly omitted detailed reference to sources discussed more fully in those treatises, but of course I have added to the texts of the lectures citations of other sources, some notes in answer to questions a reader might ask, and biblio graphical notes at the end of each. I am grateful to the U.S. National Science Foundation for its support of this work through a grant to The Johns Hopkins University.

Separation of the elements of classical mechanics into kinematics and dynamics is an uncommon tutorial approach, but the author uses it to advantage in this two-volume set. Students gain a mastery of kinematics first – a solid foundation for the later study of the free-body formulation of the dynamics problem. A key objective of these volumes, which present a vector treatment of the principles of mechanics, is to help the student gain confidence in transforming problems into appropriate mathematical language that may be manipulated to give useful physical conclusions or specific numerical results. In the first volume, the elements of vector calculus and the matrix algebra are reviewed in appendices. Unusual mathematical topics, such as singularity functions and some elements of tensor analysis, are introduced within the text. A logical and systematic building of well-known kinematic concepts, theorems, and formulas, illustrated by examples and problems, is presented offering insights into both fundamentals and applications. Problems amplify the material and pave the way for advanced study of topics in mechanical design analysis, advanced kinematics of mechanisms and analytical dynamics, mechanical vibrations and controls, and continuum mechanics of solids and fluids. Volume I of Principles of Engineering Mechanics provides the basis for a stimulating and rewarding one-term course for advanced undergraduate and first-year graduate students specializing in mechanics, engineering science, engineering physics, applied mathematics, materials science, and mechanical, aerospace, and civil engineering. Professionals working in related fields of applied mathematics will find it a practical review and a quick reference for questions involving basic kinematics.