Several people have suggested that iMechanicians compile a set of classics in mechanics. Given the mission of iMechanica (to use the Internet to enhance communications among mechanicians, and to pave a way to evolve all knowledge of mechanics online), it seems fitting for us to facilitate the communication with mechanicians of all times, and to embrace publications of all times.

I'm adding "classics" as a tag featured at the top of iMechanica. You will have to interpret for yourself what you consider to be a classic. For me, a classic should have stood the test of time (say greater than 20 years) and have influenced me deeply and directly. I should have read it and used it in my own work.

Here is my first entry:

GRIFFITH AA, The phenomena of rupture and flow in solids. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Sereis A, 221:163-198, 1921.

You can download the paper from the website of your Library.

This is the foundational paper of fracture mechanics, and foreshadows much of the subsequent development. I urge all my students to start reading it when they take the course of fracture mechanics, and return to it for illumination later in their careers. In class, I spend several lectures just talking about this paper, uncluttered by the later refinements.

In this paper, Griffith proposed his theory, described his experiments, speculated about molecular basis and size effects. For all its content, the paper is very readable, and has a totally modern outlook.

His way of treating fracture also gives a first clear example of configurational force, and of competition between elastic and surface energy.

A.A. Griffith (1893-1963)