Theoretical Mechanics

Abstract

WITH the publication of this volume on rigid dynamics, Prof. MacMillan has completed a task of first-rate importance. This work, together with its companion volumes on statics and particle dynamics and on the theory of the potential, constitute a trilogy which, for a long time to come, will be welcomed by successive generations of honours students of physics and of engineering. Despite the fact that the centre of interest has in some measure shifted from such studies, there was a real lack of a treatise which should serve the needs of this generation as Routh served those of an elder line of students. Routh's works, and Thomson and Tait, have become classics, and as is the fate of most classics are rather read about than read. No more brilliant introductions to the advanced study of mechanics are to be found than those of Horace Lamb. It is rare indeed to find a first-rate intellect which combines an almost unexampled power of exposition with a sympathetic appreciation of the needs of the average student and a capacity for keeping mathematics in touch with physical reality. Lamb had these gifts in full measure, and his treatises on mechanics are an invaluable expression of these gifts.

Theoretical Mechanics:

Dynamics of Rigid Bodies. By Prof. William Duncan MacMillan. Pp. xiii + 478. (New York and London: McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., 1936.) 36s.