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Summary: A mandatory item for anyone studying physics
Review: Anyone, who takes a course in classical mechanics based on the book on Goldstein should take Landau's book as well. It is indeed complementary to Goldstein in two respect: it first gives a very short but very concise presentation of mechanics. This is invaluable for exam preparations. Second, the language used by Landau should be taken as an example as how to prepare scientific work. In few words, Landau is superb and a master of packing complete aspects of physics. Even later, Landau is a lot of help just by looking up his wording on topics. But it should be used with another advanced textbook such as Goldstein's. If one does that, the rewards will be very rich later.
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Summary: This Book is a kind of "Stoicheia" of Physics.
Review: As soon as you read the first page of this book, you'll soon understand that this book is not for using Physics.(or not for studying for your exams.) This book is a kind of "Stoicheia"(that was written by Euclid). So you might waste your time, especially if you don't want to know why "mass>=0" is mathematically true. But, if you are a mathematician or a logician or so on, (and want to learn Physics systematically,) this book must become your favorite. Remember, this book is not too mathematical. If you are good at mathematics, just read and learn the mathematical way of thinking for Phisics.
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Summary: The genius of Landau can
Review: be appreciated by reading this rather small book. Any born theorist will be awe-struck by this book. Any born theorist will want to be like-Lev after reading this book, I guarantee it.
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Summary: Better than Goldstein
Review: Classical Mechanics by H. Goldstein was the assigned text for a senior year course on CM. In all fairness, Goldstein does introduce tools and concepts useful to more advanced study in the subject, so I would turn to G. for a second reading on these topics. He also discusses the connections between classical to quantum mechanics. Nevertheless, Landau's presentation of the core of CM is clearer and more direct. For learning about the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formalisms, rigid body rotation, small oscillations and canonical transformation, I found Landau to be the better book.
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Summary: Sublime is the word to describe his style
Review: How can you not fall in love with a physics author who is as precise, direct, and clear as Landau? When Landau teaches nothing is obscure or ambiguous. The reader is informed with minimum number of words and shortest path is used to reach the target, therefore avoiding even the slightest possibility of confusion. The rewiever who compared this book with Euclid is not exaggerrating. This book will change your way of viewing mechanics. It certainly did mine!
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Summary: Be careful of this book, it can become your new lover.
Review: I should be studying General Relativity right now instead of writing this reveiw, but I'm studying GR from Landau's Field Theory book, and I was so moved by the perfection of his writing that I had to put this review in for my beloved Mechanics book. So here it is ... If it wasn't for Landau, I wouldn't understand physics. He speaks to me in a way that nobody in the world can, clearly, with purpose, and he senses the questions that I have and answers them in a word or two. I used Goldstein's book and Saletan's book for Mechanics, and they all had wonderful stuff about Special Relativity and Nonlinear stuff, but for the meat, for the stuff that sits in your gut and makes you finally feel full, finally feel that you understand what is really happening, there is only Landau. And as I work my way through his books, I finally understand why the whole physics community of Russia banded together to save their 'Dau from the clutches of death. It was simple, they loved him, as I love him, because he makes physics something tangible, something that feels right, something that allows me to look up for once, instead of feeling crushed under the weight of the math and the theory. Hopefully soon, when I have finished this class and his Field Theory book, I will write a review for that one too, but it won't be very much different from this one. HOWEVER, I do have a complaint, and it is directed at the publisher of this book. My book was bound improperly, and it is missing part of the last section of the book. The printing is horrible, (it has been printed in India on poor-quality paper) and in some cases it makes it difficult to read. I'm sure I can send this book back to the publisher and they would replace it for me, but I can't part with it now. I feel that for the price of this thin little paperback, 50-something dollars, that this should not look like a rip-off version of the book. The publisher should use higher quality paper, printing, and maybe even re-set the equations and typography. If 'Dau could see the quality of this book, I'm sure he would be upset, and that is wrong for Butterworth Heinemann, the publisher. If I hit the Lotto someday, I hope to buy these books away from the B-H and give them the respect they deserve.
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Summary: Beautiful, Terse Presentation of Classical Mechanics
Review: I should first say that the rating of 10 I assign to this book is within the context of books on classical mechanics. Having said this, I should also say that this area has motivated some of the most beautiful books I have ever seen, so Landau's is certainly a very remarkable book in very remarkable company. No one can read Lev Landau without falling in love with physics. All his books are quite perfect. This one probably retains much of what was the original Landau flavor; all the volumes of the Course of Theoretical Physics have Evgeny Lifshitz as co-author, but many of the volumes required extensive updating over the course of the last 50 years. Classical mechanics is somewhat exceptional in this respect. However, this (and all modern classical mechanics books) treats classical mechanics from the point of view of what will be needed in quantum mechanics, so there is only the bare minimum of material; the book has only 169 pages. But everything you will need for physics is there. After you have read this book (or before), read Cornelius Lanczos' Variational Principles of Mechanics, another beautiful book.
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Summary: A Classical Book on Classical Mechanics
Review: Landau & Lifshz "Course of Theoretical Physics"is a famous and respected set of books in Physics. Unfortunately, Butterworth-Heinemann, who currently prints those books in English, prints them with very poor quality. The books seems to be "printed" in old copy machines (old Xerox or Nashua machines) and the paper used is also a cheap one. In many pages, it is really hard to read the text, due to such poor printing.
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Summary: A Classical Book on Classical Mechanics
Review: Landau & Lifshz "Course of Theoretical Physics"is a famous and respected set of books in Physics. Unfortunately, Butterworth-Heinemann, who currently prints those books in English, prints them with very poor quality. The books seems to be "printed" in old copy machines (old Xerox or Nashua machines) and the paper used is also a cheap one. In many pages, it is really hard to read the text, due to such poor printing.
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Summary: Landau should write all physics books
Review: Landau is to physics what Cliff's Notes are to novels. Landau's books contain everything you need to know, but often leave out the details trusting the reader to figure things out for themselves. And as with Cliff's Notes, the same paradox exists: if one reads Cliff's Notes in conjunction with the book itself, then he can expect to have a great understanding of book. If, however, one reads Landau's book without first knowing the subject, he can expect to be left with a partial understanding of the material.This book provides a no frills, no nonsense serving of physics, but the reader needs to know enough to be able to connect the dots. Read only after you understand the subject at a decent level.
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