The Book Is DONE!!!

At 05:17 on Monday, 31 January 2011 I finished the first draft of the book Theoretical Minimum I: Classical Mechanics by Leonard Susskind and George Hrabovsky. This book was written in Mathematica 7 and Mathematica 8.

The Book is Almost Done!

I am almost done with the final two cahpters of the book I am writing with Leonard Susskind! I will be done by Sunday!

Book Project Update

Well here I am again. Sorry about the lengthy delay in posting, I am in a full-scale assault on the book to finish it by the end of this week. I have completed chapter 16, am finishing up chapter 15, and will finish 17 and 18 by week's end! The first draft is nearly done!

Here is the book now:

Lecture 1: Dynamical systems.

Interlude 1: Calculus.

Interlude 2: Newtonian mechanics.

Lecture 2: Conservation laws, the principle of least action, and the Lagrangian.

Interlude 3: Vectors and vector spaces.

Lecture 3: Conservation laws imply symmetry.

Interlude 4: Symmetry.

Lecture 4: Time translation symmetry, the conservation of energy, and the Hamiltonian.

Interlude 5: Transformations and matrices.

Lecture 5: Pendulums and springs.

Interlude 6: Complex numbers and ordinary differential equations. 

Lecture 6: The Hamiltonian method of mechanics. 

Interlude 7: Vector analysis.

Lecture 7: Liouville's Theorem and Information Conservation

Interlude 8: Thermodynamics (almost complete)

Lecture 8: Charged Particles in Electromagnetic Fields and an Introduction to Poisson Brackets

Interlude 9: Chaos (not done yet)

Lecture 9: Poisson Brackets and Canonical Transformations

Major New result on Dinosaur Extinction

MAST member Jack Horner (not the paleontologist) has written a paper establishing that the asteroid impact theory of dinosaur exctintion is not necessary to explain the exctintion.

His paper can be found here: http://www.madscitech.org/csg/dinosaur.pdf