Statics

Sir Horace Lamb (1849-1934) the British mathematician, wrote a number of influential works in classical physics. A pupil of Stokes and Clerk Maxwell, he taught for ten years as the first professor of mathematics at the University of Adelaide before returning to Britain to take up the post of professor of physics at the Victoria University of Manchester (where he had first studied mathematics at Owens College). As a teacher and writer his stated aim was clarity: 'somehow to make these dry bones live'. His Statics was first published in 1912, and the third edition, offered here, in 1928. It was intended as a textbook for students with some knowledge of mechanics, and deals mainly with two-dimensional problems: examples are provided at the end of each section.