Physics of Continuous Matter: Exotic and Everyday Phenomena in the Macroscopic World, Second Edition provides an introduction to the basic ideas of continuum physics and their application to a wealth of macroscopic phenomena. The text focuses on the many approximate methods that offer insight into the rich physics hidden in fundamental continuum mechanics equations. Like its acclaimed predecessor, this second edition introduces mathematical tools on a "need-to-know" basis. New to the Second Edition This edition includes three new chapters on elasticity of slender rods, energy, and entropy. It also offers more margin drawings and photographs and improved images of simulations. Along with reorganizing much of the material, the author has revised many of the physics arguments and mathematical presentations to improve clarity and consistency. The collection of problems at the end of each chapter has been expanded as well. These problems further develop the physical and mathematical concepts presented. With worked examples throughout, this book clearly illustrates both qualitative and quantitative physics reasoning. It emphasizes the importance in understanding the physical principles behind equations and the conditions underlying approximations. A companion website provides a host of ancillary materials, including software programs, color figures, and additional problems.

Offering a modern approach to this most classical of subjects, Physics of Continuous Matter is first and foremost an introduction to the basic concepts and phenomenology of continuous systems, and the derivations of the equations of continuum mechanics from Newtonian mechanics. Although many examples, particularly in the earlier chapters, are taken from geophysics and astrophysics, the author places the emphasis frimly on generic methods and applications. Each chapter begins with a ‘soft’ introduction, placing the discussion within an everyday context, and the level of difficulty then rises steadily, a pattern which is reflected throughout the text as a whole. The necessary mathematical tools are developed in parallel with the physics on a ‘need-to-know’ basis, an approach that avoids lengthy mathematical preliminaries.

Physics of Continuous Media: A Collection of Problems with Solutions for Physics Students contains a set of problems with detailed and rigorous solutions. Aimed at undergraduate and postgraduate students in physics and applied mathematics, the book is a complementary text for standard courses on the physics of continuous media. With its assortment of standard problems for beginners, variations on a theme, and original problems based on new trends and theories in the physics under investigation, this book aids in the understanding of practical aspects of the subject. Topics discussed include vectors, tensors, and Fourier transformations; dielectric waves in media; natural optical activity; Cherenkov radiation; nonlinear interaction of waves; dynamics of ideal fluids and the motion of viscous fluids; convection; turbulence and acoustic and shock waves; the theory of elasticity; and the mechanics of liquid crystals.

Classical Physics of Matter explores the properties of matter that can be explained more or less directly in terms of classical physics. Among the topics discussed are the principles of flight and the operation of engines and refrigerators. The discussion introduces ideas such as temperature, heat, and entropy that will take you beyond Newtonian mechanics and into the realm of thermodynamics and statistical physics.

'Particle or Wave' explains the origins and development of modern physical concepts about matter and the controversies surrounding them.

This two-part text fills what has often been a void in the first-year graduate physics curriculum. Through its examination of particles and continua, it supplies a lucid and self-contained account of classical mechanics — which in turn provides a natural framework for introducing many of the advanced mathematical concepts in physics. The text opens with Newton's laws of motion and systematically develops the dynamics of classical particles, with chapters on basic principles, rotating coordinate systems, lagrangian formalism, small oscillations, dynamics of rigid bodies, and hamiltonian formalism, including a brief discussion of the transition to quantum mechanics. This part of the book also considers examples of the limiting behavior of many particles, facilitating the eventual transition to a continuous medium. The second part deals with classical continua, including chapters on string membranes, sound waves, surface waves on nonviscous fluids, heat conduction, viscous fluids, and elastic media. Each of these self-contained chapters provides the relevant physical background and develops the appropriate mathematical techniques, and problems of varying difficulty appear throughout the text.