Modern classical mechanics Book / T.M. Helliwell, Harvey Mudd College, California, V.V. Sahakian, Harvey Mudd College, California.

"The branch of physics known as "classical mechanics" originated in the seventeenth century, but wasn't called that until the discovery of quantum mechanics in the 1920s. It was quantum mechanics that most profoundly changed our understanding of how and why particles move as they do, and even what a particle is. Quantum mechanics was so completely different that the word "classical" had to be added to the older theory to make it clear which mechanics was meant. At the same time, quantum mechanics was heavily inspired and influenced by the formulations of classical mechanics by Lagrange and Hamilton dating back to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Einstein's theories of special relativity (1905) and general relativity (1915) also had important impacts on classical mechanics, changing the laws of motion primarily by revolutionizing our understanding of the spacetime arena in which physics takes place. These theories have been viewed as either introducing a new "relativistic mechanics" or more modestly as completing classical mechanics, making it useful even for particles moving close to the speed of light and for particles moving in strong gravitational fields"-- Provided by publisher.

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