This book describes the basic concepts and principles of classical mechanics in the intermediate level. Given the perspective that different mechanical problems require an appropriate approach drawn from various methods or principles, a textbook discussing multiple methods or principles in mechanics is highly desirable. Additionally, a good textbook should include historical context on the motivation and the development of the methods or principles, allowing students to gain insights that may help them discover new theories. However, after many years of teaching Dynamics in the graduate school, the authors were unable to find a suitable intermediate-level textbook on classical mechanics, which motivated them to begin writing this book. For the aforementioned reasons, this book includes the descriptions of various methods or principles in mechanics, such as the Newton-Euler Principle, the d’Alembert Principle, Lagrangian methods, Gauss’s Principle of Least Constraint, the Gibbs-Appell equation, Jourdain’s equation, the Principle of Virtual Power, the Appell-Kane method, the Hamilton Principle, and the Hamiltonian mechanics, among others. Moreover, many historical remarks on the motivation and the development of the methods or principles are given in this book, as well as numerous applications. The authors also believe that in studying the motion of a material body, different models may be used depending on the application. If the position of the body is of interest, a particle model may be chosen. If the orientation or attitude of the body is under consideration, a rigid body model should be adopted. If deformation is a concern, a model of deformable body should be applied. Consequently, a book in mechanics for engineers should encompass a variety of models of the body, ranging from particles to continua such as solids or fluids. This book also meets that need.
Prof. Yih-Hsing Pao was born on Jan 1930 in China. He received the B.S. degree in Civil Engineering from the National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, in 1952, the M.S. degree in Mechanics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, U.S.A. in 1955, and Ph.D. degree in Applied Mechanics from Columbia University, U.S.A. in 1959. In 1958, he joined the faculty group of Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (T&AM), College of Engineering, Cornell University, and became a Professor in 1968, and J.C. Ford Chair Professor of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics in 1984. He also served as the Chairman of T&AM from 1974 to 1980. He retired completely from Cornell University as J.C. Ford Chair Professor Emeritus in 2000. During his leave from Cornell University, he was appointed as the Director and Professor of the Institute of Applied Mechanics, National Taiwan University from 1984 to 1986, and from 1989 to 1994. In 1994, he resigned from the position of Director and served as Professor of Emeritus since 1998. In 2003, YH Pao was invited by Zhejiang University, China to be a professor of College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, a lifetime faculty position. Due to illness, he passed away in 2013. In resarch, he devoted himself to the area of Elastodynamics, Physical Acoustics, Electromagneto-Mechanics, Mechanical Vibrations, Civil Aviation Structure Dynamics, Rock and Soil Dynamics, Propagation in Elastic Solids, Non-Destructive Testing, Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamic, and so on. Prof. Pao was elected a member of U.S. National Academy of Engineering in 1985, the highest honor bestowed on an engineer by the U.S. government. In 1986, he was elected an Academician by the Academia Sinica (at Taipei), a lifetime honor for a Chinese scholar. In 1989, he received the senior U.S. Scientist Award from Humboldt Foundation, Germany, visiting T.H. Darmstadt. In 1995, he was awarded an Honorary Doctoral Degree by National Chiao-Tung University (Hsin-Chu, Taiwan). Because of contribution to the scientific research and education of Taiwan, he was one of three recipients of Presidential Science Prize of Taiwan in 2003. His 1977 paper “Generalized Ray Theory and Transient Responses of Layered Elastic Solids” was selected in 2000 by the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (IUTAM) as one of the landmark papers in Mechanics of the 20th century.
Prof. Li-Sheng Wang was born in Taiwan in 1961. He received the B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, in 1983, and the M.S. and the Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park, U.S.A. in 1987 and 1990, respectively. From 1990 to 1991, he was a Research Associate with the Department of Mathematics, University of Maryland. Since 1991, he has been with the Institute of Applied Mechanics, National Taiwan University, where he is currently a Professor. In resarch, his major interests include classical mechanics, dynamics, control, and navigation. He is a senior member of the society of IEEE, and served as an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control from 1998 to 1999.
