Rating: 
Summary: A very great book
Review: This book is very good. I use it very much because it has every thing about mechanics with a very good mathematical suport. Every equation is shown with a great formalism. I think it is the best mechanics' book for undergraduated phisics student.
Rating: 
Summary: Where is the love?
Review: This book, like most undergrad mechanics books I've seen,
doesn't present the philosophy behind Newton's laws.
It's goal is to derive formulas so that the studnet can use them if the need comes. This isn't how you write good physics books.
It's because of books like these, that don't present the philosophy of Newtonian mechanics, studnets have such a hard time understanding the Theoy of Relativity. How can the students realize there is something wrong with Newtonian ideas, if they don't know what they are!!! I would like to say that some the problems are intersting, but again none of them make you think about the physics. Just, ok which formula will do the job? or which ODE do I solve?I would like to add that there is one undergrad book that I was very impressed by: Barger and Olsson: 'Classical Mechanics: A Modern Prespective'. Stright to the point and intersting physical examples (archery, drag-racing, Newtonian Cosmology, space flight, etc.). It also takes on the Lagrangian formulation early.
Rating: 
Summary: All you need to know in classical Mechanics
Review: This is an excellent introductory text in classical mechanics, which bridges the gap between Freshman physics and advanced texts like Goldstein. It contains a good mix between equations and physical insight and understanding, providing many physical explanations to some concepts that are rarely found in other texts. Due to its considerable scope, the book is quite dense with information (over 600 pages). To keep the number of equations manageable, Symon resorts to skipping many straightforward steps in derivations and to leaving much "as an exercise for the reader". This is not a problem, for in most cases he leaves sufficient instructions that the careful reader can arrive at the same results, but make sure you have a pen and lots of paper nearby when reading it! The level of discussion goes well beyond that of Freshman physics, and introduces more realistic complexities such as nonlinearity, precession, non-spherical shapes, etc. At the same time, it does not rely much on advanced mathematics, thus it is easily within the grasp of undergraduate students. Any mathematics beyond Freshman Calculus that is used is Freshman Calculus is explained in the text. The book covers many topics, among which I found the following to be well-presented: 1. Excellent explanation and philosophical definition of basic quantities like mass, force, and momentum.
2. A brief introduction to vector analysis and coordinate systems.
3. A brief (and excellent) introduction to tensors as they apply in physics.
4. A near complete analysis of the harmonic oscillator in 1, 2, and 3 dimensions, as well as coupled harmonic oscillators.
5. The pendulum and rigid rotations.
6. Moving and rotating coordinate systems.
7. Inertia and free rotation.
8. Central force problems
9. Newtonian gravitation and planetary motion.
10. N-body problem, with a thorough analysis of the 3-body problem (as far as can be achieved analytically).
11. Brief introduction to Lagrangian formulation [though I wish he included more solved examples in this section]
12. Wave and fluid dynamics.
13. Small vibrations, stability, and perturbation theory. My biggest complaint about the second edition was the difficulty of the problems. That edition lacked easy problems with which to reinforce understanding of the text before tackling the harder ones. This problem was corrected in the 3rd edition, which adds a lot more (easier) problems to many chapters, and reorganizes the problems to follow the order of the text. This makes it much more useful, though I warn that some of the problems (especially the asterisked ones) are really hard! The answers at the back of the book are not perfect either and have some mistakes. The 3rd edition also added two chapters on special relativity and relativistic dynamics that I found quite useful and well-presented.
Rating:
Summary: All you need to know in classical Mechanics
Review: This is an excellent introductory text in classical mechanics, which bridges the gap between Freshman physics and advanced texts like Goldstein. It contains a good mix between equations and physical insight and understanding, providing many physical explanations to some concepts that are rarely found in other texts. Due to its considerable scope, the book is quite dense with information (over 600 pages). To keep the number of equations manageable, Symon resorts to skipping many straightforward steps in derivations and to leaving much "as an exercise for the reader". This is not a problem, for in most cases he leaves sufficient instructions that the careful reader can arrive at the same results, but make sure you have a pen and lots of paper nearby when reading it! The level of discussion goes well beyond that of Freshman physics, and introduces more realistic complexities such as nonlinearity, precession, non-spherical shapes, etc. At the same time, it does not rely much on advanced mathematics, thus it is easily within the grasp of undergraduate students. Any mathematics beyond Freshman Calculus that is used is Freshman Calculus is explained in the text. The book covers many topics, among which I found the following to be well-presented: 1.Excellent explanation and philosophical definition of basic quantities like mass, force, and momentum.
2.A brief introduction to vector analysis and coordinate systems.
3.A brief (and excellent) introduction to tensors as they apply in physics.
4.A near complete analysis of the harmonic oscillator in 1, 2, and 3 dimensions, as well as coupled harmonic oscillators.
5.The pendulum and rigid rotations.
6.Moving and rotating coordinate systems.
7.Inertia and free rotation.
8.Central force problems
9.Newtonian gravitation and planetary motion.
10.N-body problem, with a thorough analysis of the 3-body problem (as far as can be achieved analytically).
11.Brief introduction to Lagrangian formulation [though I wish he included more solved examples in this section]
12.Wave and fluid dynamics.
13.Small vibrations, stability, and perturbation theory. My biggest complaint about the second edition was the difficulty of the problems. That edition lacked easy problems with which to reinforce understanding of the text before tackling the harder ones. This problem was corrected in the 3rd edition, which adds a lot more (easier) problems to many chapters, and reorganizes the problems to follow the order of the text. This makes it much more useful, though I warn that some of the problems (especially the asterisked ones) are really hard! The answers at the back of the book are not perfect either and have some mistakes. The 3rd edition also added two chapters on special relativity and relativistic dynamics that I found quite useful and well-presented.
Rating:
Summary: Why is such a good book out of print?
Review: This text outshines and outperforms Marion/Thornton by far! Symon has an enjoyable, if a bit rambling, writing style. Unlike the stupidly popular Marion/Thornton text, Symon actually explains the physics! Right on! Keep on rockin', Symon!
Rating: 
Summary: Symon sucks moon rocks
Review: Unfortunately, so do all its competitors,and for similar reasons. The lessons of 40 years of physics education research have totally failed to penetrate this bastion of didactic exposition. I used this book as an undergraduate, and I teach this course now, and I would not touch Symon -- it is pedagogically totally ineffective. It is structured as reference, not pedagogical, material, but it is at too low a level to be usable for that purpose like Goldstein or Jose and Saletan. As such, it is neither fish nor fowl. The overall problem is that junior level classical mechanics is a black hole for physics texts -- there are no good ones, but this is among the least effective (and expensive to boot).
Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT PROBLEMS!!!
Review: With all due respect, I do not think the critics of this book are aware of how this text can prepare a student for a study of modern physics. The beauty of this book is in its problems, and some may not realise how difficult it is to combine principles and problems in a respectable text, for principles and general equations are written in a scholarly form -- while problems, for the most part, ask for derived forms; however, if you have an intellectual work ethic, an attention span, the ability to visualise, and a graphing calculator(wouldn't be a bad idea), you'll get as much or more out of this book as any other.
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