Branches
Classical mechanics was traditionally divided into three main branches:
- Statics, the study of equilibrium and its relation to forces
- Dynamics, the study of motion and its relation to forces
- Kinematics, dealing with the implications of observed motions without regard for circumstances causing them
Another division is based on the choice of mathematical formalism:
- Newtonian mechanics
- Lagrangian mechanics
- Hamiltonian mechanics
Alternatively, a division can be made by region of application:
- Celestial mechanics, relating to stars, planets and other celestial bodies
- Continuum mechanics, for materials which are modelled as a continuum, e.g., solids and fluids (i.e., liquids and gases).
- Relativistic mechanics (i.e. including the special and general theories of relativity), for bodies whose speed is close to the speed of light.
- Statistical mechanics, which provides a framework for relating the microscopic properties of individual atoms and molecules to the macroscopic or bulk thermodynamic properties of materials.
Read more about this topic: Classical Mechanics
Famous quotes containing the word branches:
“Go to the adolescent who are smothered in family—
Oh how hideous it is
To see three generations of one house gathered together!
It is like an old tree with shoots,
And with some branches rotted and falling.”
—Ezra Pound (1885–1972)
“What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish?”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“...there is hope for a tree, if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease. Though its root grows old in the earth, and its stump dies in the ground, yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth branches like a young plant. But mortals die, and are laid low; humans expire, and where are they?”
—Bible: Hebrew, Job 14:7-10.