Elements of Analytical Mechanics (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Elements of Analytical Mechanics The following pages were mainly prepared, several years ago for the use of the author's class in the United States Military Academy. Their publication has been unavoidably postponed to the present time, and they are now offered to the public in the hope that they may contribute something to lighten the labor which every student must encounter at the threshold of the subject of which it is their purpose to treat. In accordance with the suggestions of much experience in the business of teaching, all unnecessary divisions and subdivisions have been avoided. They too often divert the mind from what is essential to that which is merely accidental, and prevent the formation of those habits of generalization which alone can give facility in acquiring and confidence in applying any branch of knowledge. Mechanics has for its object to investigate the action of forces upon the various forms of bodies. All physical phenomena are but the necessary results of a perpetual conflict of equal and opposing forces, and the mathematical formula expressive of the laws of this conflict must involve the whole doctrine of Mechanics. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.