Classical mechanics is deceptively simple. It is surprisingly easy to get the right answer with fallacious reasoning or without the real understanding. To address this problem Jack Wisdom and I, with help from Hardy Mayer, have written [Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics] and are teaching a class at MIT that uses computational techniques to communicate a deeper understanding of Classical mechanics. We use computational algorithms to express the methods used to analyze dynamical phenomena. Expressing the methods in a computer language forces them to be unambiguous and computationally effective. Formulating a method as a computer-executable program and debugging that program is a powerful exercise in the learning process. Also, once formalized procedurally, a mathematical idea becomes a tool that can be used directly to compute results.[4]
The entire text is freely available online from the publisher's website.[5]
Editions
Sussman, Gerald Jay; Wisdom, Jack; Mayer, Meinhard E. (2001). Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. ISBN0262194554. OCLC45223598.
Sussman, Gerald Jay; Wisdom, Jack (6 February 2015). Structure and interpretation of classical mechanics (Second ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. ISBN9780262028967. OCLC905916340.
