Physics of Continuous Matter

Emphasising on intuition and formalism, this text provides an introduction to continuum physics. It is suitable as the main text for a course on continuum physics or as the foundation for courses on more specialized areas, such as solid mechanics, fluid mechanics, geophysics, and astrophysics.

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Offering a modern approach to this most classical of subjects, Physics of Continuous Matter is first and foremost an introduction to the basic concepts and phenomenology of continuous systems, and the derivations of the equations of continuum mechanics from Newtonian mechanics. Although many examples, particularly in the earlier chapters, are taken from geophysics and astrophysics, the author places the emphasis frimly on generic methods and applications. Each chapter begins with a `soft’ introduction, placing the discussion within an everyday context, and the level of difficulty then rises steadily, a pattern which is reflected throughout the text as a whole. The necessary mathematical tools are developed in parallel with the physics on a `need-to-know’ basis, an approach that avoids lengthy mathematical preliminaries.