Müller-Kirsten (U. of Kaiserlautern) takes readers through mechanics from Newton to Einstein with detailed explanations and worked examples. combining classical mechanics and relativity he helps the reader to see the connection between Newton's gravitational potential and Kepler motion as well as diverse aspects of mechanics. His topics include LaGrangian and Hamiltonian formalism, and the relation between relativity and essential tensor calculus, along with Einstein's equation in special cases with explicit presentations of calculations for all steps, with coverage of Newtonian mechanics, symmetries, bodies' central forces, rigid body dynamics, small oscillations and stability, phenomenological consequences, aspects of special relativity, the equation of motion of the particle in a gravitational field, tensor calculus for Reimann spaces, Einstein's equation of the gravitational field, and the Schwarzschild solution. Includes appendices on the Schwarzschild orbit solution and Reissner-Nordstrom metric. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)