Rigid Body Kinematics and C++ Code

This electronic book is an advanced text on the principles of Rigid Body Kinematics. The subject is reviewed to its full extent, and several new concepts and formulations are introduced. The result is very different from the traditional presentation found in many textbooks. The book also offers an integrated approach - perhaps the first in its kind - of the principles of Rigid Body Kinematics with the object- oriented C++ code that implements the kinematic objects and brings them to life. Thinking in terms of objects is the natural way of thinking. The concept of object has existed in Science for centuries. More recently, objects were introduced in Computation, and object-oriented programming languages were created. Yet the idea that scientific objects can come alive in a computer has not yet been fully exploited in the literature. This work attempts to fill the gap. The book is intended to be used as a modern and complete College textbook, even for students with no interest in computation or with no knowledge of programming. The objects and the code are presented in an unobtrusive way. Students can start using them as they learn or expand at a later time as the need arises.