Elasticity and Fluid Dynamics (Volume 3 of Modern Classical Physics)

Kip Thorne and Roger Blandford’s monumental Modern Classical Physics is now available in five stand-alone volumes that make ideal textbooks for individual graduate or advanced undergraduate courses on statistical physics; optics; elasticity and fluid dynamics; plasma physics; and relativity and cosmology. Each volume teaches the fundamental concepts, emphasizes modern, real-world applications, and gives students a physical and intuitive understanding of the subject.

Elasticity and Fluid Dynamics provides an essential introduction to these subjects. Fluids and elastic solids are everywhere—from Earth’s crust and skyscrapers to ocean currents and airplanes. They are central to modern physics, astrophysics, the Earth sciences, biophysics, medicine, chemistry, engineering, and technology, and this centrality has intensified in recent years—so much so that a basic understanding of the behavior of elastic solids and fluids should be part of the repertoire of every physicist and engineer and almost every other natural scientist. While both elasticity and fluid dynamics involve continuum physics and use similar mathematical tools and modes of reasoning, each subject can be readily understood without the other, and the book allows them to be taught independently, with the first two chapters introducing and covering elasticity and the last six doing the same for fluid dynamics. The book also can serve as supplementary reading for many other courses, including in astrophysics, geophysics, and aerodynamics.

• Includes many exercise problems
• Features color figures, suggestions for further reading, extensive cross-references, and a detailed index
• Optional “Track 2” sections make this an ideal book for a one-quarter or one-semester course in elasticity, fluid dynamics, or continuum physics
• An online illustration package is available to professors

Kip S. Thorne is the Feynman Professor Emeritus of Theoretical Physics at Caltech. His books include Gravitation and Black Holes and Time Warps.

Roger D. Blandford is the Luke Blossom Professor of Physics and the founding director of the Kavli Institute of Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at Stanford University. Both are members of the National Academy of Sciences.

Roger D. Blandford, winner of the Crafoord and Shaw prizes in astronomy, is the Luke Blossom Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences and founding director of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at Stanford University.