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Mathematical Methods
for Physics
and Engineering
Mathematical Methods
for Physics
and Engineering

Mattias Blennow
CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
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Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742

© 2018 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

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Version Date: 20171121

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To Ana
Contents

Chapter 1  Scalars and Vectors 1

1.1 VECTORS AND ARITHMETICS 1

1.2 ROTATIONS AND BASIS CHANGES 3
1.3 INDEX NOTATION 6
1.3.1 The Kronecker delta and the permutation symbol 6
1.3.2 Vector algebra using index notation 7
1.4 FIELDS 10
1.4.1 Locality 12
1.4.2 Field integrals 13
1.4.2.1 Volume integrals 13
1.4.2.2 Surface integrals 14
1.4.2.3 Line integrals 16
1.4.3 Differential operators and fields 17
1.4.3.1 The gradient 18
1.4.3.2 The divergence 19
1.4.3.3 The curl 20
1.4.3.4 The directional derivative 22
1.4.3.5 Second order operators 22
1.4.3.6 Coordinate independence 23
1.5 INTEGRAL THEOREMS 24
1.5.1 Line integral of a gradient 24
1.5.2 The divergence theorem 25
1.5.3 Green’s formula 29
1.5.4 The curl theorem 29
1.5.5 General integral theorems 31
1.6 NON-CARTESIAN COORDINATE SYSTEMS 32
1.6.1 General theory 32
1.6.1.1 Tangent vector basis 34
1.6.1.2 Dual basis 35
1.6.2 Orthogonal coordinates 38
1.6.2.1 Integration in orthogonal coordinates 39
1.6.2.2 Differentiation in orthogonal coordinates 40

vii
viii  Contents

1.6.3 Polar and cylinder coordinates 42

1.6.4 Spherical coordinates 44
1.7 POTENTIALS 49
1.7.1 Scalar potentials 49
1.7.2 Vector potentials 53
1.7.3 Scalar and vector potentials 57
1.8 PROBLEMS 59

Chapter 2  Tensors 69

2.1 OUTER PRODUCTS AND TENSOR BASES 71

2.1.1 General coordinate bases 72
2.2 TENSOR ALGEBRA 74
2.2.1 Tensors and symmetries 75
2.2.2 The quotient law 78
2.3 TENSOR FIELDS AND DERIVATIVES 79
2.3.1 The metric tensor 80
2.3.1.1 Distances and the metric tensor 81
2.3.1.2 Lowering and raising indices 82
2.3.2 Derivatives of tensor fields 83
2.3.2.1 The covariant derivative 85
2.3.2.2 Divergence 87
2.3.2.3 Generalised curl 88
2.3.3 Tensor densities 89
2.3.4 The generalised Kronecker delta 93
2.3.5 Orthogonal coordinates 95
2.4 TENSORS IN CARTESIAN COORDINATES 96
2.5 TENSOR INTEGRALS 98
2.5.1 Integration of tensors in Cartesian coordinates 98
2.5.1.1 Volume integration 98
2.5.1.2 Surface integrals 99
2.5.1.3 Line integrals 100
2.5.1.4 Integral theorems 101
2.5.2 The volume element and general coordinates 102
2.6 TENSOR EXAMPLES 104
2.6.1 Solid mechanics 105
2.6.1.1 The stress tensor 105
2.6.1.2 The strain tensor 107
2.6.1.3 The stiffness and compliance tensors 109
2.6.2 Electromagnetism 110
2.6.2.1 The magnetic field tensor 111
 Contents  ix

2.6.2.2 The Maxwell stress tensor 111

2.6.2.3 The conductivity and resistivity tensors 113
2.6.3 Classical mechanics 115
2.6.3.1 The moment of inertia tensor 115
2.6.3.2 The generalised inertia tensor 117
2.7 PROBLEMS 119

Chapter 3  Partial Differential Equations and Modelling 127

3.1 A QUICK NOTE ON NOTATION 127

3.2 INTENSIVE AND EXTENSIVE PROPERTIES 128
3.3 THE CONTINUITY EQUATION 130
3.4 THE DIFFUSION AND HEAT EQUATIONS 134
3.4.1 Diffusion and Fick’s laws 134
3.4.2 Heat conduction and Fourier’s law 136
3.4.3 Additional convection currents 137
3.5 THE WAVE EQUATION 138
3.5.1 Transversal waves on a string 139
3.5.1.1 Wave equation as an application of continuity 140
3.5.2 Transversal waves on a membrane 141
3.5.3 Electromagnetic waves 143
3.6 BOUNDARY AND INITIAL CONDITIONS 144
3.6.1 Boundary conditions 145
3.6.1.1 Dirichlet conditions 145
3.6.1.2 Neumann conditions 146
3.6.1.3 Robin boundary conditions 147
3.6.2 Initial conditions 148
3.6.3 Uniqueness 150
3.7 PDES IN SPACE ONLY 151
3.8 LINEARISATION 154
3.9 THE CAUCHY MOMENTUM EQUATIONS 157
3.9.1 Inviscid fluids 159
3.9.2 Navier–Stokes equations 161
3.9.3 Incompressible flow 164
3.10 SUPERPOSITION AND INHOMOGENEITIES 165
3.10.1 Removing inhomogeneities from boundaries 166
3.10.2 Using known solutions 167
3.11 MODELLING THIN VOLUMES 168
3.12 DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS 170
3.12.1 Units 172
3.12.2 The Buckingham π theorem 174
x  Contents

3.12.3 Dimensional analysis and modelling 177

3.12.4 Parameters as units 178
3.13 MODELLING WITH DELTA FUNCTIONS 179
3.13.1 Coordinate transformations 180
3.13.2 Lines and surfaces 181
3.14 PROBLEMS 184

Chapter 4  Symmetries and Group Theory 195

4.1 WHAT IS A SYMMETRY? 195

4.2 GROUPS 198
4.2.1 Conjugacy classes 201
4.2.2 Subgroups 203
4.2.3 Homomorphisms 204
4.3 DISCRETE GROUPS 205
4.3.1 The cyclic group 207
4.3.2 The dihedral group 208
4.3.2.1 Dihedral groups and three dimensions 209
4.3.3 The symmetric group and permutations 211
4.4 LIE GROUPS 212
4.4.1 Rotations 215
4.4.2 Translations 216
4.4.3 Matrix groups 217
4.4.3.1 The orthogonal group 218
4.4.3.2 The unitary group 221
4.5 REPRESENTATION THEORY 223
4.5.1 Tensor products and direct sums 224
4.5.2 Reducible representations 227
4.6 PHYSICAL IMPLICATIONS AND EXAMPLES 229
4.6.1 Reduction of possible form of solutions 229
4.6.2 Important transformations in physics 232
4.6.2.1 Time translations and reversal 232
4.6.2.2 Spatial reflections (parity) 234
4.6.2.3 Galilei transformations 237
4.7 IRREPS AND CHARACTERS 239
4.7.1 Irreducible representations 239
4.7.2 Schur’s lemmas and the orthogonality theorem 240
4.7.3 Characters 242
4.7.3.1 Orthogonality of characters 244
4.7.3.2 Decomposition into irreps 245
4.7.4 Physical insights 247
 Contents  xi

4.8 OUTLOOK 253

4.9 PROBLEMS 254

Chapter 5  Function Spaces 263

5.1 ABSTRACT VECTOR SPACES 263

5.1.1 Inner products and completeness 265
5.1.1.1 Geometry in inner product spaces 266
5.1.1.2 Convergence of series 267
5.1.2 Function spaces as vector spaces 268
5.1.2.1 Inner products on function spaces 269
5.2 OPERATORS AND EIGENVALUES 270
5.2.1 Application of operators in finite spaces 270
5.2.2 Operators on inner product spaces 273
5.2.2.1 Differential operators and discretisation 274
5.3 STURM–LIOUVILLE THEORY 276
5.3.1 Regular Sturm–Liouville problems 277
5.3.1.1 Sturm–Liouville’s theorem 279
5.3.2 Periodic and singular Sturm–Liouville problems 281
5.4 SEPARATION OF VARIABLES 283
5.4.1 Separation and Sturm–Liouville problems 284
5.5 SPECIAL FUNCTIONS 288
5.5.1 Polar coordinates 289
5.5.1.1 Bessel functions 291
5.5.1.2 Modified Bessel functions 298
5.5.2 Spherical coordinates 300
5.5.2.1 Legendre polynomials and associated Legendre func-
tions 301
5.5.2.2 Spherical harmonics 306
5.5.2.3 Spherical Bessel functions 309
5.5.3 Hermite functions 313
5.6 FUNCTION SPACES AS REPRESENTATIONS 316
5.6.1 Reducibility 317
5.7 DISTRIBUTION THEORY 320
5.7.1 Distribution derivatives 322
5.8 PROBLEMS 324

Chapter 6  Eigenfunction Expansions 335

6.1 POISSON’S EQUATION AND SERIES 335

6.1.1 Inhomogeneous PDE 335
xii  Contents

6.1.2 Inhomogeneous boundary conditions 338

6.1.2.1 Transferring inhomogeneities 341
6.1.3 General inhomogeneities 342
6.1.3.1 Superpositions 342
6.1.3.2 Transferring inhomogeneities 344
6.2 STATIONARY AND STEADY STATE SOLUTIONS 345
6.2.1 Removing inhomogeneities 346
6.3 DIFFUSION AND HEAT EQUATIONS 348
6.3.1 Initial conditions 348
6.3.2 Constant source terms 351
6.3.3 Critical systems 353
6.3.4 Time-dependent sources 358
6.4 WAVE EQUATION 358
6.4.1 Inhomogeneous sources and initial conditions 358
6.4.2 Damped systems 361
6.4.3 Driven systems 362
6.5 TERMINATING THE SERIES 366
6.5.1 Heat and diffusion equations 369
6.5.2 Wave equation 370
6.6 INFINITE DOMAINS 371
6.6.1 Domains with a boundary 374
6.6.1.1 The Fourier sine and cosine transforms 375
6.6.1.2 Hankel transforms 376
6.7 TRANSFORM SOLUTIONS 377
6.7.1 Mixed series and transforms 381
6.8 DISCRETE AND CONTINUOUS SPECTRA 384
6.9 PROBLEMS 388

Chapter 7  Green’s Functions 401

7.1 WHAT ARE GREEN’S FUNCTIONS? 401

7.2 GREEN’S FUNCTIONS IN ONE DIMENSION 403
7.2.1 Inhomogeneous initial conditions 408
7.2.2 Sturm–Liouville operators and inhomogeneities in the bound-
ary conditions 412
7.2.3 The general structure of Green’s function solutions 414
7.3 POISSON’S EQUATION 415
7.3.1 Hadamard’s method of descent 418
7.4 HEAT AND DIFFUSION 421
7.5 WAVE PROPAGATION 423
7.5.1 One-dimensional wave propagation 424
 Contents  xiii

7.5.2 Three-dimensional wave propagation 426

7.5.3 Two-dimensional wave propagation 428
7.5.4 Physics discussion 428
7.6 PROBLEMS WITH A BOUNDARY 432
7.6.1 Inhomogeneous boundary conditions 432
7.6.2 Method of images 434
7.6.2.1 Multiple mirrors 438
7.6.3 Spherical boundaries and Poisson’s equation 442
7.6.4 Series expansions 446
7.7 PERTURBATION THEORY 448
7.7.1 Feynman diagrams 452
7.8 PROBLEMS 456

Chapter 8  Variational Calculus 469

8.1 FUNCTIONALS 469

8.2 FUNCTIONAL OPTIMISATION 471
8.2.1 Euler–Lagrange equations 473
8.2.1.1 Natural boundary conditions 474
8.2.2 Higher order derivatives 476
8.2.3 Comparison to finite spaces 478
8.3 CONSTANTS OF MOTION 480
8.3.1 Integrand independent of the function 481
8.3.2 Integrand independent of the variable 482
8.4 OPTIMISATION WITH CONSTRAINTS 484
8.4.1 Lagrange multipliers 486
8.4.1.1 Several constraints 489
8.4.2 Isoperimetric constraints 490
8.4.3 Holonomic constraints 492
8.5 CHOICE OF VARIABLES 493
8.6 FUNCTIONALS AND HIGHER-DIMENSIONAL SPACES 496
8.6.1 Conservation laws 499
8.7 BASIC VARIATIONAL PRINCIPLES IN PHYSICS 502
8.7.1 Fermat’s principle 502
8.7.2 Hamilton’s principle 505
8.7.2.1 Constants of motion 507
8.8 MODELLING WITH VARIATIONAL CALCULUS 509
8.9 VARIATIONAL METHODS IN EIGENVALUE PROBLEMS 512
8.9.1 The Ritz method 515
8.9.2 The Rayleigh-Ritz method 517
8.9.2.1 Finite element method 519
xiv  Contents

8.10 PROBLEMS 521

Chapter 9  Calculus on Manifolds 535

9.1 MANIFOLDS 535

9.2 FORMALISATION OF VECTORS 538
9.2.1 Tangent vectors 540
9.2.1.1 Vector fields 542
9.2.2 Dual vectors 543
9.2.2.1 Differentials as dual vectors 545
9.2.3 Tensors 546
9.3 DERIVATIVE OPERATIONS 548
9.3.1 The Lie bracket 548
9.3.2 Affine connections 549
9.3.2.1 Coordinate transformations 552
9.3.2.2 Affine connections and tensor fields 553
9.3.3 Parallel fields 554
9.3.4 Torsion 557
9.3.5 Curvature 561
9.4 METRIC TENSOR 565
9.4.1 Inner products 566
9.4.2 Length of curves 567
9.4.3 The Levi-Civita connection 570
9.4.4 Curvature revisited 572
9.5 INTEGRATION ON MANIFOLDS 573
9.5.1 Differential forms 574
9.5.1.1 The exterior derivative 576
9.5.2 Integration of differential forms 577
9.5.3 Stokes’ theorem 580
9.5.4 The continuity equation revisited 585
9.5.4.1 Flux 585
9.5.4.2 Production, concentration, and continuity 586
9.6 EMBEDDINGS 587
9.7 PROBLEMS 592

Chapter 10  Classical Mechanics and Field Theory 603

10.1 NEWTONIAN MECHANICS 603

10.1.1 Motion of a rigid body 604
10.1.2 Dynamics of a rigid body 606
10.1.3 Dynamics in non-inertial frames 611
 Contents  xv

10.2 LAGRANGIAN MECHANICS 615

10.2.1 Configuration space 616
10.2.2 Finite number of degrees of freedom 618
10.2.3 Non-inertial frames in Lagrangian mechanics 621
10.2.4 Noether’s theorem 622
10.2.5 Effective potentials 625
10.3 CENTRAL POTENTIALS AND PLANAR MOTION 632
10.3.1 The two-body problem and Kepler’s laws 638
10.3.2 The restricted three-body problem 641
10.4 HAMILTONIAN MECHANICS 643
10.4.1 Phase space 643
10.4.2 The Hamiltonian 646
10.4.3 Poisson brackets 649
10.4.4 Liouville’s theorem 652
10.4.5 Canonical transformations 655
10.4.6 Phase space flows and symmetries 658
10.5 MANIFOLDS AND CLASSICAL MECHANICS 661
10.5.1 The Lagrangian formalism revisited 661
10.5.2 The Hamiltonian formalism revisited 664
10.6 FIELD THEORY 669
10.6.1 Noether’s theorem revisited 671
10.6.2 Symmetries of the wave equation 674
10.7 PROBLEMS 676

Appendix A  Reference material 691

A.1 GROUPS AND CHARACTER TABLES 691

A.1.1 Cyclic groups 691
A.1.1.1 C2 691
A.1.1.2 C3 691
A.1.1.3 C2v 691
A.1.2 Dihedral groups 692
A.1.2.1 D2 692
A.1.2.2 D3 692
A.1.2.3 D3h 692
A.1.3 Symmetric groups 692
A.1.3.1 S2 692
A.1.3.2 S3 693
A.1.3.3 S4 693
A.2 DIFFERENTIAL OPERATORS IN ORTHOGONAL COORDINATES 693
A.2.1 General expressions 693
xvi  Contents

A.2.2 Cylinder coordinates 694

A.2.3 Spherical coordinates 694
A.3 SPECIAL FUNCTIONS AND THEIR PROPERTIES 694
A.3.1 The Gamma function 694
A.3.2 Bessel functions 695
A.3.2.1 Bessel functions 695
A.3.2.2 Modified Bessel functions 695
A.3.2.3 Integral representations 695
A.3.2.4 Asymptotic form 695
A.3.2.5 Relations among Bessel functions 695
A.3.2.6 Expansions 696
A.3.2.7 Orthogonality relations 696
A.3.2.8 Bessel function zeros 696
A.3.3 Spherical Bessel functions 697
A.3.3.1 Spherical Bessel functions 697
A.3.3.2 Relation to Bessel functions 697
A.3.3.3 Explicit expressions 697
A.3.3.4 Rayleigh formulas 697
A.3.3.5 Relations among spherical Bessel functions 698
A.3.3.6 Orthogonality relations 698
A.3.3.7 Spherical Bessel function zeros 698
A.3.4 Legendre functions 698
A.3.4.1 Legendre functions 698
A.3.4.2 Rodrigues’ formula 699
A.3.4.3 Relation among Legendre polynomials 699
A.3.4.4 Explicit expressions 699
A.3.4.5 Associated Legendre functions 699
A.3.4.6 Orthogonality relations 699
A.3.5 Spherical harmonics 700
A.3.5.1 Spherical harmonics 700
A.3.5.2 Expression in terms of associated Legendre functions 700
A.3.5.3 Orthogonality relation 700
A.3.5.4 Parity 700
A.3.6 Hermite polynomials 700
A.3.6.1 Hermite polynomials 700
A.3.6.2 Explicit expressions 701
A.3.6.3 Creation operators 701
A.3.6.4 Hermite functions 701
A.3.6.5 Orthogonality relations 701
A.4 TRANSFORM TABLES 701
A.4.1 Fourier transform 701
 Contents  xvii

A.4.1.1 Transform table 702

A.4.2 Laplace transform 702
A.4.2.1 Transform table 702

Index 705
Preface

Mathematics and mathematical methods hold a central role in the scientific pursuit. It
is the language we use in order to describe Nature and make quantifiable and testable
predictions, the cornerstone of the scientific principle. Compiling all of the mathematics
used in physics today would be a daunting task. Instead, this book focuses on common
mathematical methods needed to confront modern theoretical physics that are also used in
many branches of engineering. The target audience of the book is physics or engineering
students that have already taken basic courses in mathematics including linear algebra,
multi-variable calculus, and introductory differential equations, typically in the third year
of university or later. Unlike many other textbooks on mathematical methods in physics
that often use examples from quantum mechanics or other advanced subjects, I have tried to
use examples from subjects that should be more familiar to the student as much as possible.
With this approach, the student will hopefully be able to see these examples in a new light
and prepare his or her intuition for using the new tools in advanced topics at the same time.
I have also attempted to introduce some new concepts as needed for the discussion.
It should be noted that this book is not intended to be mathematically rigorous. Instead,
the idea is to convey mathematics as a tool for describing physical systems and therefore
focus more on the intuition behind the mathematics and its application to physics. You will
therefore not find the typical theorem-proof-corollary structure that you might expect from
a textbook in mathematics.
The topics covered in the different chapters of this book and their applications are:
1. Scalars and Vectors: A basic treatment of vector analysis, which is a fundamental
piece of mathematics used in almost every branch of modern physics. The chapter
introduces the concepts of fields, their derivatives, and integration. Furthermore, we
will work through both non-Cartesian coordinate systems and potential theory, which
are often useful tools for solving particular problems. Examples of theories relying
heavily on vector analysis include Newtonian mechanics and Maxwell’s theory of elec-
tromagnetism.
2. Tensors: Tensor analysis builds upon the concepts introduced in Chapter 1 and ex-
pands them to involve general linear transformations between vectors (and tensors).
The approach taken in this chapter is slightly different from what is usually found
in textbooks. Instead of starting out with tensors in Cartesian coordinates, we will
start by introducing tensors in general coordinates systems already from the begin-
ning as this provides a deeper insight to what tensors are all about. We later treat the
special case of Cartesian coordinates and discuss tensor integration and how tensors
are applied in solid mechanics, electromagnetism, and classical mechanics. Apart from
this, tensor analysis also plays a central role in, for example, fluid mechanics and the
special and general theories of relativity.
3. Partial Differential Equations and Modelling: Modelling is at the core of physics. With-
out a mathematical model for a system, no amount of mathematical techniques will
help us make predictions about it. The chapter covers the most basic ideas in mathe-
matical modelling using differential equations, starting from the continuity equation,

xix
xx  Preface

and discusses techniques important for dealing with them. We will also discuss dimen-
sional analysis, which is central to modelling any physical system and lets us draw
conclusions about how they scale, and how delta functions may be used to provide
idealised models.
4. Symmetries and Group Theory: Symmetry arguments are a powerful tool for simplify-
ing and solving many physical systems. In some particular applications, fundamental
symmetries even lie at the heart of the theory itself. The natural language for describ-
ing symmetries is that of group theory and this chapter gives a basic introduction to
these concepts. The resulting mathematical theory is useful for drawing conclusions
about the behaviour of any physical system and is applicable across a wide range of
topics.
5. Function Spaces: This chapter introduces and treats function spaces as a more abstract
form of vector space. We discuss operators acting on these function spaces and their
eigenvalues. In particular, we look at Sturm–Liouville theory and its applications.
By using separation of variables, we arrive at a large number of different Sturm–
Liouville problems whose solutions will be important when approaching the models
constructed in Chapter 3. These functions will turn out to appear also in many other
physics applications as they are the solutions to very particular differential equations.
The framework developed here will be particularly useful in the study of continuous
mechanical systems as well as in basic quantum mechanics.
6. Eigenfunction Expansions: The methods of Chapter 5 are applied in order to solve
many of the models introduced in Chapter 3. In particular, we apply eigenfunction
expansions in order to reduce partial differential equations to ordinary differential
equations for the expansion coefficients. This is used to treat both homogeneous and
inhomogeneous problems in general with additional treatment of critical systems and
resonances in driven systems. We also discuss the effects of terminating series solutions
using only a finite number of terms to approximate the solution. Furthermore, we dis-
cuss the case of infinite domains, where series expansions are replaced by transforms.
Methods of this sort are used in the treatment of continuous mechanical systems.
7. Green’s Functions: The use of Green’s functions to solve differential equations is based
on the principle of superposition. In particular, it is useful as a method for expressing
the solution to a general inhomogeneous linear differential equation in terms of the
solution to the fundamental case with a delta function inhomogeneity. We discuss
different ways of finding Green’s functions for specified problems and applying them
to models. Finally, we apply them to the case of non-linear systems by introducing and
using perturbation theory. These methods are applicable in a wide range of different
fields, from automated control to quantum field theory.
8. Variational Calculus: Functionals are maps from sets of functions to real or complex
numbers. Variational calculus deals with finding stationary values of such functionals
and is applicable to finding the shortest path between two points in a general space
or the stable configurations of different physical systems. Many physical principles
can be formulated in terms of variational problems and we will use Fermat’s principle
for light propagation and Hamilton’s principle in classical mechanics as examples.
Variational methods are also useful as a tool for modelling systems based upon energy
methods rather than finding differential equations by analysing infinitesimal elements
of a system.
9. Calculus on Manifolds: Many physical systems cannot be described in terms of Eu-
clidean spaces. We here introduce the concept of manifolds and describe how calculus
 Preface  xxi

works on them, discussing both derivatives and integrals. The generalisation of the
vector and tensor concepts to manifolds holds a central role in the discussion and we
treat general curved spaces. The calculus on manifolds is applicable to generalisations
of several theories, including classical mechanics, and essential in the study of general
relativity.
10. Classical Mechanics and Field Theory: The main aim of this chapter is not to in-
troduce new mathematical tools. Instead, it is intended to serve as an example of
the application of several of the concepts treated throughout the book. The Newto-
nian, Lagrangian, and Hamiltonian approaches are introduced and discussed to some
extent. In particular, the realisation of the connection between symmetries and con-
served quantities through Noether’s theorem is fundamental to modern theoretical
physics. We also introduce the Lagrangian approach to field theory, starting by tak-
ing a continuous classical mechanical system as an example.

To the student
This book will introduce you to many of the fundamental mathematical methods used in
modern physics. The range of topics covered is rather broad and the difficulty level will
gradually increase. Throughout the book, you will find many examples that are intended
to illustrate applications of the more abstract notions that are discussed in the main text.
In particular, I strongly recommend reading through the examples if you feel that you are
in need of more concrete realisations in order to shape your understanding.
Note that reading this material will only get you so far. In reality, there is no substi-
tute for actually working through the material yourself. I therefore recommend reading the
material with pen and paper readily available in order to fill in any steps you do not find
immediately evident. Obtaining an intuition for the different topics also requires you to
apply the theory to different problems. Each chapter in this book therefore comes with a
large number of problems, listed at the end of the chapter, intended to illustrate the appli-
cation of the theory. In order to master the material, I therefore also suggest that you work
through the problems rather than continuing straight on to the next topic.
You should also note that there is a lot of material in this book. You should not be
surprised if your course only covers part of the material or your instructor excludes some of
the more advanced topics in any given chapter depending on the length of your course. This
is intentional and the more advanced topics are also intended to serve as additional input
for students who find the material interesting and want to go deeper. If your instructor
excludes parts of the material, pay close attention to what problems he or she recommends,
as they will likely be representative of what is included in your particular course.
I hope you will enjoy reading this book as much as I have enjoyed writing it.

To the instructor
The material covered in this book is extensive and likely sufficient to last for several courses.
Depending on your intentions with your course, you may want to select different parts of the
material to present. In many cases, understanding of the earlier chapters is not necessary,
but often helpful. Be mindful when you select the material and also make sure to recommend
problems that are appropriate and representative of the material that you wish to cover.
You can always recommend parts of the book that you do not cover to interested students
who wish to obtain a deeper knowledge. For reference, the approximate prerequisites for
each chapter are listed below. Obviously, the knowledge of the content for any given chapter
may also be acquired elsewhere.
xxii  Preface

1. Scalars and Vectors: Being the first chapter in the book, no knowledge apart from the
prerequisites mentioned earlier should be necessary.
2. Tensors: Understanding the first chapter is necessary. In particular, the notation intro-
duced in the discussion of non-Cartesian coordinate systems will be used extensively.
The potential theory part of the first chapter is not crucial.
3. Partial Differential Equations and Modelling: The first chapter is required knowledge
as many of the tools of vector analysis will be applied. The second chapter is helpful
as some models will be introduced in their general form using tensors, but it is not
crucial for most of the basic understanding.
4. Symmetries and Group Theory: Again, the first chapter is crucial for a basic under-
standing. The second chapter is mainly used for some of the discussion on tensor
product representations.
5. Function Spaces: The first chapter is recommended, in particular the discussion on
different coordinate systems. However, much of the material stands on its own and
mainly requires basic linear algebra. The discussion of group representations on func-
tion spaces requires that the representation theory part of Chapter 4 has been covered.
6. Eigenfunction Expansions: Chapters 1, 3, and 5 should be considered as prerequisites
as well as basic knowledge on the solution of ordinary differential equations.

7. Green’s Functions: Chapter 3 is a prerequisite, mainly for the introduction of the

models that we will solve. The discussion on distributions in Chapter 5 is helpful,
but not crucial. The series method for finding the Green’s function of a problem also
requires the theory developed in Chapter 5, but may generally be skipped without
losing the main message of the chapter.
8. Variational Calculus: Requires the knowledge from Chapter 1 and the discussion about
the metric tensor in Chapter 2 is helpful. The modelling part refers back to discussions
in Chapter 3.
9. Calculus on Manifolds: Chapters 1 and 2 are crucial and cannot be skipped. Chapter 8
is necessary for the discussion on geodesics and the Levi-Civita connection. Chapter 3
is necessary for the discussion of the continuity equation in a general manifold.
10. Classical Mechanics and Field Theory: Chapter 1 is crucial for all of this chapter. For
the discussions on tensors such as the moment of inertia, Chapter 2 is also necessary.
The Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics parts, as well as the field theory part,
require the knowledge from Chapter 8 and the discussion on the use of manifolds in
classical mechanics requires the methods developed in Chapter 9.

Acknowledgments
This book started as a set of lecture notes and supplementary material in a course essentially
covering Chapters 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8 as I could not find any textbook that suited the specific
needs for that course, which covered mathematical methods with focus on their application
to physical systems. In this course, the focus was not on the mathematics, but on the
application of the mathematics to physics. In particular, many of the available textbooks
used examples from quantum mechanics, which had not yet been covered by the target
audience, and did not include any part on mathematical modelling. If not for this course,
this book would never have been written.
 Preface  xxiii

I would also like to take the opportunity to thank my teaching assistants Stefan
Clementz, Per Moosavi, and Mattias Olla for their help in eliminating many typos as well
as all students that have pointed out errors and unclear passages.
I have also drawn some inspiration from discussions with the internet community Physics
Forums (www.physicsforums.com) regarding my mode of presentation and for fine-tuning
my formulation of the subject matter to the target audience. Surprisingly often, people have
been posting questions regarding the very same material I have been writing about, in some
cases leading me to rethink the approach taken.
Since it was written on my free time during evenings and weekends, this book would
also never have been completed without the support of my wife. Admittedly, she has rolled
her eyes at my devotion to the text more than once, but without her understanding and
acceptance, the time necessary to complete the book would not have been available. The
book is dedicated to her.

Mattias Blennow
Stockholm, Sweden, 2017
 CHAPTER 1

Scalars and Vectors

Essentially everyone who has come into contact with physics at a higher education level
is familiar with the concepts of scalars and vectors. The concept of a scalar is easy to
grasp as a quantity that has a particular value, such as the kinetic energy of an object,
the air pressure at sea level, or the temperature in your oven. The concept of a vector is
also relatively straightforward, generally being presented as a directional quantity that has
magnitude as well as direction. The typical examples of vector quantities include kinematic
quantities such as velocities and accelerations. For example, when flying from New York
to Paris, not only the speed (being the magnitude of the velocity) but also the direction
of the aircraft velocity is of importance. Flying in the wrong direction we might end up in
Anchorage instead, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but probably not what we intended
when boarding the flight.
While a scalar quantity can be represented by a single number and a suitable unit of
dimension (such as meters, feet, or light years for a distance), a vector needs to be described
by several numbers. The most convenient way of doing this is to define a number of linearly
independent directions by choosing a set of basis vectors ~ei . The number of such vectors
should be equal to the dimension of the space we want to describe, normally three when
discussing classical physics, but sometimes less if some directions can be ignored or more
in the case where not only the spatial position of a single object is of interest. Some of
the concepts in this text, such as the vector cross product, are particularly constructed for
three-dimensional space, while others, such as the scalar product or divergence of a vector
field, have straightforward generalisations to more or fewer dimensions. The requirement of
linear independence of the basis vectors states that it is impossible to write a basis vector
as a linear combination of other basis vectors. As a consequence, we can write any vector ~v
in an N -dimensional space as
N
X
~v = v i~ei . (1.1)
i=1

In particular, in three dimensions, ~v = v ~e1 + v 2~e2 + v 3~e3 (note that the superscripts here
1

are indices, not powers!). The N numbers v i uniquely define the vector ~v and it is common
to select basis vectors in such a way that they have magnitude one and are orthogonal. Such
a set of basis vectors is referred to as an orthonormal basis.

1.1 VECTORS AND ARITHMETICS

The concepts of scalars and vectors come with some basic arithmetic rules. Scalar quanti-
ties may be multiplied together, resulting in a new scalar quantity of a different physical
dimension, or added (if they have the same physical dimension), resulting in a new scalar

1
2  Mathematical Methods for Physics and Engineering

quantity of the same dimension. Naturally, such multiplications or additions do not nec-
essarily have a physical meaning and theories of physics are essentially based on how to
apply mathematical operations in order to describe the world we live in and make useful
predictions.
When it comes to vectors, there is a natural definition of multiplication with a scalar
quantity, we multiply the magnitude of the vector by the same amount. In fact, we have
already used this in Eq. (1.1) when decomposing the vector ~v into a sum of scalar multiples
of the unit vectors ~ei . The same goes for a sum of two vectors, where we can add the
coefficients multiplying each of the basis vectors in order to obtain the coefficient of the
corresponding basis vector for the vector sum. As in the case of a scalar addition, vector
addition also requires the vectors to have the same physical dimension in order to produce
meaningful results. In terms of the basis vectors, we therefore have
N
X N
X
a~v = a v i~ei = (av i )~ei , (1.2a)
i=1 i=1
N
X
~v + w
~= (v i + wi )~ei . (1.2b)
i=1

There is no way of defining an addition of a scalar and a vector, but there are different
possibilities of creating vector products and these are useful tools when constructing physical
theories.
The scalar product (also called dot product or inner product) ~v · w ~ of two vectors ~v and
w
~ is a scalar and is linear in both vectors. It has an intuitive geometrical interpretation (see
Fig. 1.1) as the product of the magnitudes of the vectors multiplied by the cosine of the
angle between their directions. The vectors are orthogonal if ~v · w ~ = 0. Thus, if the basis
vectors ~ei are chosen to be orthonormal, i.e., ~ei · ~ej equals one if i = j and zero otherwise,
then
XN X N N X
X N N
X
i j i j
~v · w
~= v ~ei · w ~ej = v w (~ei · ~ej ) = v i wi . (1.3)
i=1 j=1 i=1 j=1 i=1

We can also use the scalar product in order to define the magnitude (or norm) of a vector
as v
uN
√ uX
|~v | = ~v · ~v = t (v i )2 . (1.4)
i=1

It is very common to denote ~v · ~v = ~v 2 . Note that this is compatible with the definition of
a scalar vector multiplication yielding a new vector with a magnitude which is the original
vector magnitude multiplied by the scalar. The geometrical interpretation of the scalar
product can now be written in the form

~v · w
~ = |~v | |w|
~ cos(α), (1.5)

where α is the angle between the vector directions. It is also common to denote the mag-
nitude of a vector using a scalar with the same letter, but omitting the vector arrow, i.e.,
|~v | = v.
In three dimensions, we can also define the anti-symmetric cross product (or vector
product) ~v × w ~ = −w~ × ~v of two vectors as a new vector. Just as the scalar product, the
cross product is linear in both of the vectors. This means that we can completely define it
 Scalars and Vectors  3

~
w
~v ×

w
~ w
~
n(α)
~ | si
|~v | |w
α α
~v
~v
|w|
~ cos(α)

Figure 1.1 Visual of the geometrical interpretation of the scalar (left) and cross (right) products.
In the scalar product, the value of the scalar product is the length of ~v multiplied by |w|
~ cos(α).
Note that this value does not depend on whether we project w ~ on ~v or the other way around. The
shaded vectors have the same scalar product with ~v as w ~ has. For the cross product, the shaded
area is equal to the modulus of the cross product ~v × w,
~ which is also orthogonal to both ~v and w.
~

in terms of how it acts on an orthonormal set of basis vectors in a right-handed basis as

~e1 × ~e2 = ~e3 , (1.6a)

~e2 × ~e3 = ~e1 , (1.6b)
~e3 × ~e1 = ~e2 , (1.6c)
~ei × ~ei = 0, for all i. (1.6d)

This defines the ordering of the basis vectors. For a left-handed basis, the definitions come
with a minus sign on one side. In terms of the vector components, we obtain

~ = (v 2 w3 − v 3 w2 )~e1 + (v 3 w1 − v 1 w3 )~e2 + (v 1 w2 − v 2 w1 )~e3 .

~v × w (1.7)

The squared magnitude of ~v × w

~ can now be found using the scalar product and after
simplification
|~v × w|
~ = |~v | |w|
~ sin(α), (1.8)
where α again is the angle between the vectors ~v and w. ~ Furthermore, the cross product
~v × w~ is orthogonal to both ~v and w~ (see Problem 1.5). Combining these properties, the
cross product also has a geometrical interpretation as a vector orthogonal to both of the
arguments and a magnitude equal to the area spanned by them, see Fig. 1.1.
In addition to the scalar and cross products, there is an additional product called the
outer product that is defined regardless of the number of dimensions. This product is a
second rank tensor and we will return to it in Chapter 2.

1.2 ROTATIONS AND BASIS CHANGES

The choice of basis vectors ~ei is not unique. In fact, we can select any three linearly inde-
pendent vectors as the basis and work from there. However, as we have done, it is often
convenient to work in terms of an orthonormal basis, where the basis vectors are orthogonal
4  Mathematical Methods for Physics and Engineering

~e10 0 ~e1

~e20 0 ~e2

~e30 0 ~e3

Figure 1.2 A left- and a right-handed set of vectors. When held as in the image, the vectors ~e1 ,
~e2 , ~e3 , pointing in the directions of the thumb, index finger, and middle finger of the right hand,
respectively, and ordered in that specific order, constitute a right-handed system. On the left part
of the image, the vectors ~e100 , ~e200 , ~e300 constitute a left-handed system.

and have magnitude one. Still, there is a freedom of choice of different orthonormal bases.
In general, an orthonormal basis ~ei can be related to a different orthonormal basis ~ei00 by
means of a rotation, assuming that the two bases have the same handedness. Note here that
we have chosen to use primed indices for the primed basis. This is a notational convention
that is useful to keep track of what indices belong to which basis. As mentioned previously,
the handedness of a basis is based on the ordering of the basis vectors as illustrated in
Fig. 1.2. In order to transform a right-handed basis into a left-handed one, or vice versa, a
reflection is needed in addition to the rotation.
The properties of a vector do not depend on the basis chosen. Regardless of the chosen
basis, a vector pointing to the Moon will always point at the Moon, independent of whether
one of our basis vectors point to the Sun or not. As mentioned in the beginning of this
chapter, the vector ~v may be written in the basis ~ei according to Eq. (1.1). By the fact that
we could just as well use the basis ~ei00 , we must therefore have
0
N N
X X 0
~v = i
v ~ei = v i ~ei00 . (1.9)
i=1 i0 =10
0
Here we have chosen to use a prime only in the index of v i to denote that this component
belongs to the primed basis. Alternatives to this include using a prime only for the symbol
0
itself v 0i (and at the same time using ~ei0 ) or using double primes v 0i . However, using one
prime only is sufficient and our choice is coherent with using primed indices for the primed
basis vectors.
0
With orthonormal bases, the coefficients v i and v i can be found through the scalar
product with the basis vectors themselves
0
v i = ~ei · ~v , v i = ~ei00 · ~v . (1.10)

As we can express ~v using either basis, this leads to

N N N
0 X X X 0
v i = ~ei00 · v i~ei = v i~ei00 · ~ei ≡ v i aii , (1.11)
i=1 i=1 i=1
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stems of the water-palm which was growing at hand in great
profusion, and answered the purpose excellently. It was, however,
partly destroyed by fire, and required great care in crossing. We
could not trust the animals on it, so we had to fall back on our rope,
and haul them across a little higher up the river, where the water was
deeper and the current consequently less violent.
Just below the bridge were a series of magnificent cascades,
which filled the air for a long distance round with their stupendous
roar. As we intended making another march that day, we went on
again after a short halt. The men had had no food for three days,
except the remains of the insignificant quantity of meat I shot a few
days before. We were therefore anxious to reach the cultivated
country in order to buy fresh supplies for them.
After a weary walk from eleven in the morning to four in the
afternoon, we were relieved to find ourselves among the shambas of
the natives. We camped beside a small stream close to a village,
and immediately opened a market, and when the natives appeared
we bought a small supply of maize and sweet potatoes, which were
at once served out to our hungry men.
 CHAPTER III.
FROM THE TANA TO M’BU.

We reach and cross the Tana—Maranga—The abundance of food

thereof—We open a market—We treat the Maranga elders to
cigars, with disastrous results—Bad character of the Wa’M’bu—
We resume our journey—A misunderstanding with the A’kikuyu—
We reach M’bu.
Early the following morning we struck camp and travelled due north,
following native paths. Ascending a low hill, we were unexpectedly
greeted by the paramount chief of the district, who rejoiced in the
name of Kinuthia, and several of his elders. He presented us, by way
of an introduction, with a gourd containing about half a gallon of
fresh milk, which we much appreciated, signifying the same in the
usual manner. When we regained our breath once more, Kinuthia
handed us a note given him by Mr. Hall, a Government officer, who
had been up there a month before in order to select a site for the
new Government station for the Kenia district; which stated that
Kinuthia was a friendly chief, and desired to be recognized as such.
We immediately recognized him as such by enlisting him as our
guide to the Sagana, which we expected to be able to cross that day.
After a short conversation he took the lead, and on we marched
again. He led us across some very rough country for an hour and a
half, when we reached a small, swift river, an affluent of the Sagana.
We crossed without much trouble by the timely aid of the ragged-
looking A’kikuyu noblemen in attendance on their chief. Another two-
hour tramp followed, when we at last reached the Sagana, which is
really a noble river, abounding in hippo here, as indeed it does
everywhere. We saw no crocodiles, though we inquired most
anxiously after them.
Kinuthia informed us that the Somalis’ safari had crossed three
weeks or a month before. One of Jamah Mahomet’s cows, while
fording the river, had been seized by a crocodile and the poor
beast’s shoulder torn right out. We did not feel more comfortable on
receipt of this intelligence, but we were assured by the natives that
they had since poisoned all the crocodiles for a distance of half a
mile or so each side of the ford, though they thought it likely that a
stray reptile or two might have escaped the general poisoning. We
had no choice, however; so we stripped and waded, chin-deep, to
the opposite side, about eighty yards distant.
The current was immensely powerful, and the bottom very pebbly
and slippery; but we were assisted by some of Kinuthia’s aristocracy,
and made the passage in safety. Our men were tired and rather
nervous of the current, so for three “makono” (about 1½ yards) of
cloth each, we induced fifteen of the aforesaid A’kikuyu noblemen to
carry their loads across for them—a task they successfully
accomplished, Kinuthia himself not disdaining to discard his royal
robes (a goatskin) and earn his piece of cloth.
We breakfasted on the bank, and then made another move, as
Kinuthia impressed upon us the fact that an hour’s journey further on
was situate the village of Manga, the chief of the Maranga, whose
people had an abundance of food for sale, and where we should be
able to buy all the supplies we needed without any trouble. He said
he would accompany us and introduce us, which we thought was
very good of him.
Our way lay through dense plantations, which fully bore out friend
Kinuthia’s assertions as to the richness of the district in food-stuffs.
In an hour we reached a gently sloping hill, covered with short green
grass, on which we pitched our camp. We sent for the chief, who
shortly afterwards made his appearance. He seemed a very decent
old fellow, and anxious to assist us. We stated our requirements, and
he immediately commanded his people to bring us food for sale, and
did everything in his power—short of giving anything away himself—
to show us that he was friendly and well-disposed towards us.
His son, Koranja, a rather good-looking young fellow for a native,
had been down to Mombasa with a safari, and spoke Kiswahili fairly
well. He seemed very intelligent. Some of the old men of the tribe
also spoke Kiswahili, which, we presumed, they had picked up from
passing Arab or Swahili safaris. Kinuthia bade us adieu and returned
to his own village the other side of the Sagana, having received from
us a suitable present of beads, etc., to gladden his heart, or rather
the hearts of his wives.
Large quantities of food then began to arrive, and we decided to
stop where we were for a day or two, and buy at least ten days’
rations for the men, before resuming our journey northwards. We
retired that night a great deal easier in our minds about the
commissariat than we had been for some days.
Next morning the camp was fairly buzzing with natives of all ages
and both sexes. Most of them had brought food to sell, but many of
them came merely to look at us. Not that we were much to look at; in
any civilized community we should have run a great risk of being
arrested as vagrants and suspicious characters. El Hakim and
George both wore embryo beards, and our appearance generally
was rather that of tramps than otherwise. El Hakim had a great
affection for a pair of moleskin trousers and a leather jacket, both of
which had seen much service. His hat, too, had known better days;
but it was an idiosyncrasy of his to wear his clothes on safari work till
they were absolutely beyond further mending and patching. On one
occasion he was reported to have tramped about the Lykipia plateau
for months, clad only in a coloured cloth and a pair of brown boots,
with a towel twisted round his head turban-wise, he having lost his
only hat. I can vouch for the comfort of such a dress in a good
climate such as obtains on the Waso Nyiro, as I tried the experiment
myself.
THE CAMP AT MARANGA.
 BUYING FOOD AT MARANGA. (See page 54.)

As soon as we had breakfasted, we went about the important

business of marketing. Maranga, as is Kikuyu generally, is
extraordinarily rich and fertile. All kinds of grain are exceedingly
plentiful. Among those brought to us for sale were millet (Panicum
Italicum), called by the natives “metama;” Pennisetum spicatum,
known as “mwele,” a seed resembling linseed, which grows on a
close spike like a bulrush flower; Eleusine corocana, known as
“uimbe;” and “muhindi,” or “dhurra” (maize). A large variety of edible
roots is also cultivated, the most common being “viazi” (sweet
potatoes), “vikwer” (yams), and “mahogo” (manioc). Sugar-cane was
very largely grown, and is known to the natives as “mewa.” The
stalks of metama, which are called “kota,” are also chewed by the
natives on account of the sweetish sap. The half-grown stalks of the
same plant are known as “metama m’tindi.” “N’dizi” (bananas) are
also extensively cultivated, but we never ate any, as they are never
allowed to ripen. The natives pluck them while they are green and
hard, and roast them in hot ashes. When cooked they have the
appearance and taste of a floury potato, though with a slightly
astringent flavour. Wild honey was procurable in moderate
quantities. It is called “assala,” evidently derived from the Arabic
word for the same substance, “assal.” The Masai name for honey is
“naischu,” the word generally used in Kikuyu. At certain seasons of
the year the staple diet of the natives is “kundu” (beans), of which we
saw two varieties, viz. “maragua,” a small white bean like a haricot,
and “baazi,” a black bean which grows in pods on a small tree like a
laburnum. They also grow several kinds of gourds, named
respectively “mumunye,” which resembles a vegetable marrow in
size and appearance, “kitoma,” a small, round kind, and “tikiti,” a
small water-melon. It will be observed that we did not lack variety.
We bought large quantities of m’wele, which our Swahilis at first
refused to eat: they said it was “chickens’ food.” They knew better
afterwards. We also procured some “mazewa” (fresh milk) for
ourselves. Food was comparatively cheap. A “makono” of cloth or a
handful of beads bought several “kibabas” of grain or beans. A
kibaba equals about a pint. The term “makono” (meaning, literally, a
hand) is applied to the measure of the forearm from the tip of the
elbow to the end of the second finger, generally about eighteen
inches. Four makono equal one “doti” (about two yards), and twenty-
five yards or so make a “jora” or “piece” of cloth.
The beads most in demand were the small red Masai beads
known as “sem-sem.” We did not part with any wire, as we wanted it
for the districts farther north.
George and I went out in the forenoon to try and shoot hippo in the
Sagana, which was only an hour’s walk from the camp. On reaching
a likely pool, I sat down on the bank to watch. George had turned
very sick again on the way, and laid down under a shady tree. I shot
two hippo in the water, but they sank, and though I sent men down
the river to watch the shallows, I never saw any more of them.
There were a lot of guinea-fowl about, so I sent back to camp for
my shot-gun. George was feeling so queer that he went back also.
When my gun arrived, I had a good time among the guinea-fowl,
securing eight in an hour or so. I also got a partridge, which turned
up in a—for it—inopportune moment.
When I got back to camp, I found that El Hakim had been highly
successful in his marketing, and had obtained a large quantity of
food, mostly mwele, muhindi, and some viazi. For our own
consumption we had laid in a stock of muhindi cobs, maragua
beans, and some butter. The butter was snow-white, but, being
made from curdled milk, was very acid and unpalatable.
The natives always drink their milk sour; they do not understand
our preference for fresh milk. Another thing that tends to make their
milk unpopular with European travellers is the dirty state of the
vessels it is kept in. They are made from gourds which have had the
inside cleaned out by the simple process of burning it out with hot
ashes, which gives the milk a nasty charred flavour. The finished
milk vessel is called a “kibuyu.” I have been told that they stir the
freshly drawn milk with a charred stick from the fire, to preserve it,
but I never saw it done. The Masai especially are very bad offenders
in this respect. The old women who milk the cows invariably wash
out the empty vessels with another fluid from the same animal,
certainly never intended by nature for that purpose. If the milk is
intended for sale to the “wasungu” (white men), it is more often than
not adulterated in the same nauseous manner.
We lunched on some of the guinea-fowl I had shot in the forenoon.
Ramathani somehow boiled them tender. Afterwards we held a
“shaurie” (council), at which old Manga and many of his elders
attended. We wanted all the information we could obtain about our
road northward, the districts we should have to pass through, and
the position of the various streams and camping-places.
We were smoking Egyptian cigarettes, a box of which we
numbered among our most precious possessions, and it was rather
a nuisance to have to pass a freshly lighted cigarette round the circle
of natives squatted in front of El Hakim’s tent for each to take a whiff.
They could not properly appreciate them, and it seemed to me very
much like casting pearls before swine. In addition, when the cigarette
was returned, the end was chewed about, and a good smoke
thereby spoiled. If we lit another, the same process was repeated.
The native gentlemen called it etiquette. I considered it downright
sinful waste, an opinion in which El Hakim evidently concurred, as,
after we had had several cigarettes spoiled in this provoking manner,
he turned to me and said, “Get out your box of ‘stinkers,’ Hardwick,
and let’s try the old gentlemen with those.”
I thought it was a splendid idea, so I brought out two of them, and,
lighting one myself, handed the other to old Manga. He glanced at it
suspiciously, turning it over and over in his grimy paws. He had
apparently never seen a cigar before, but seeing me smoking a
similar specimen, he at last ventured to light it. It seemed to grate on
him a little, but he said nothing, and puffed stolidly away for a
moment or two, though I could see his powers of self-control were
being exerted to the utmost. After a game struggle the cigar scored a
distinct success, and Manga, deliberately passing it on to the elder
on his right, rose slowly, and, stalking with great dignity out of camp,
disappeared behind a clump of bushes.
The old man to whom he handed it gazed wonderingly after him
for a moment, then, placing the fatal weed between his aged lips, he
took a long pull and inhaled the smoke. A startled look appeared in
his dim old eyes, and he threw a quick glance in my direction; but I
was calmly puffing away at mine, so he said nothing either, and took
another whiff. In a few short moments he in his turn was vanquished,
and, handing the cigar to his next neighbour, retired with great
dignity to the clump of bushes, where he and old Manga offered up
sacrifices to the goddess Nicotina with an unanimity that was as
surprising as it was novel.
It was only with the very greatest difficulty that we managed to
control our risible faculties. We were inwardly convulsed with
laughter at the facial expressions of the old gentlemen before and
after tasting the fearsome weed. The looks of delighted, though
timorous, anticipation, the startled realization, and the agonized
retrospection, which in turn were portrayed on the usually blank and
uninteresting countenances of Manga’s Ministers of State, was a
study in expression that was simply killing. One by one they tasted it;
one by one they retired to the friendly clump of bushes that
concealed their exaltation from prying eyes; and one by one they
returned red-eyed and shaky, and resumed their places, inwardly
quaking, though outwardly unmoved.
We also had to get up and go away, but not for the same purpose.
If we had not gone away and laughed, we should have had a fit or
burst a blood-vessel. It was altogether too rich. We returned red-
eyed and weary also, and I believe that the old gentlemen thought
that we had been up to the same performance as themselves,
though they could not understand how I resumed my cigar on my
reappearance, and continued smoking with unruffled serenity. I
made a point of finishing my smoke to the last half-inch, and all
through the “shaurie” that succeeded I became aware that I was the
recipient of covert glances of admiration, not unmixed with envy,
from the various members of that little band of heroic sufferers in the
cause of etiquette.
When the “shaurie” was at length resumed, we gained a lot of
interesting information. We found that the people who had attacked
Finlay and Gibbons were the Wa’M’bu, who live two days’ journey to
the north of Maranga, on the south-east slopes of Mount Kenia. They
had a very bad reputation. The Maranga people spoke of them with
bated breath, and remarked that they were “bad, very bad,” and that
if we went through their country we should certainly be killed.
Jamah Mahomet’s safari, numbering nearly 100 guns, had refused
to go through M’bu, and had turned off to the west from Maranga, to
go round the west side of Mount Kenia and thence northward to
Limeru, as the district north-east of Kenia is called by the Swahilis.
There are many different peoples between Maranga and M’thara,
the most northerly inhabited country, though they are all A’kikuyu in
blood. Beyond M’thara the desert stretches away to southern
Somaliland and Abyssinia, with Lake Rudolph in the foreground
about twelve days’ march north-west of M’thara.
The Maranga elders entreated us very urgently to go round west
of Kenia by the same route as Jamah Mahomet and Co., but we did
not see things in the same light at all. We were three white men with
twenty-five guns; and, as El Hakim observed, we were “not to be
turned from our path and our plans disarranged by a pack of howling
savages, however bad a reputation they might have”—a decision we
conveyed to our Maranga friends forthwith. They heard it with much
raising of hands and rolling of eyes, and clearly regarded us as
persons of unsound mind, who really ought to be kept in
confinement; but still, they said, if we were determined to court a
premature end in M’bu, why, they would do all in their power to help
us—an ambiguity we indulgently excused in consideration of the
evident sincerity of their wish to advise us for our good.
We were informed that all the people northward were “kali sana”
(very fierce), and we should do well to use the utmost precaution in
passing through the various districts—a piece of advice we did not
intend to disregard. To go round the other way meant quite a
fortnight more on the road to M’thara, in addition to which El Hakim
was very anxious to see Mount Kenia from the east side, as, indeed,
were we all, as no white men that we knew of had been round that
way before. Perhaps the fact that the Somalis funked the M’bu route
had something to do with our decision also.
We gathered what information we could of the topography of M’bu
and the adjacent countries, which afterwards proved exceedingly
useful. We packed up our goods and chattels, and made our
preparations for a start on the morrow. One of our men, Hamisi, had
a severe attack of dysentery, and we made arrangements with the
old Manga to leave him behind with enough cloth for his keep for
some months. Manga’s son Koranja and some of the old men
signified their intention of accompanying us part of the way. It
appeared that for two days’ journey we should be among friendly
tribes. After that, the Wa’M’bu!
We started the following morning as soon as Koranja appeared.
The country was extraordinarily rich and fertile. The soil is bright red,
and produces, in conjunction with the constant moisture, a practically
unlimited food-supply. The ground was very hilly and well watered—
too well watered for our comfort. There were no large trees, but the
undergrowth was very rank and dense. We saw large quantities of
the castor-oil plant (Ricinus communis) growing wild. The natives
press the dark-coloured oil from the seeds and smear their bodies
with it.
Several times on that morning’s march we saw Koranja, who was
leading, dart hurriedly to one side, and, leaving the path, plunge into
the undergrowth, making a devious détour round something,
followed, of course, by the safari. We asked the reason of his
strange conduct, and the answer more than satisfied us. It was the
single word “ndui” (small-pox). We passed quite half a dozen villages
which were entirely depopulated by the scourge. Now and again we
saw a solitary emaciated figure, covered with small-pox pustules,
crouching on the side of the path, watching us with an uninterested
and vacant stare. On a shout from Koranja and a threatening motion
of his spear, it would slink mournfully away into the deeper recesses
of the jungle.
We reached a small clearing about midday, and camped. We were
unable to build a boma round the camp, owing to the absence of
thorn trees, or any reliable substitute; so that we were in a measure
defenceless against a sudden attack. Large numbers of armed
natives soon put in appearance, and swaggered in and out with
great freedom, and even insolence. We cleared them out politely, but
firmly, and they then congregated outside and discussed us. They
talked peacefully enough, but it was more like the peaceful singing of
a kettle before it boils over. We ate our lunch, and retired to our
tents. George and I went to our own tent, and, taking off our boots,
laid down on our blankets for a quiet smoke. Our men seemed very
much upset by the stories they had heard in Maranga concerning the
warlike qualities of the Wa’M’bu, and their condition could only be
described as “jumpy.” To put it plainly, they were in a pitiable state of
fright, and needed careful handling, if we were to avoid trouble with
the natives through their indiscretion; as trouble would come quite
soon enough of its own accord without that.
 GROUP OF A’KIKUYU.

To resume, George and I had lain down, perhaps, half an hour,

and were quite comfortable and half asleep, when a terrific
altercation caused us to jump up and rush outside. We were just in
time to assist El Hakim in forcibly disarming our men. Some of them
were placing cartridges in the breeches of their rifles; a few yards
away a vast crowd of natives were frantically brandishing their
spears and clubs and yelling like demons. If a shot had been fired,
we should have been in rather a tight place, for, as I have said, the
camp was quite open, and practically defenceless. If the A’kikuyu
had rushed us, then the chances are that another fatality would have
been added to Africa’s already long list. As it was, by much shouting
and punching, we induced our excited and frightened men to put
down their weapons in time, and so regained control over them.
Koranja, shaking visibly, went up to the Kikuyu chief and smoothed
matters down, after which mutual explanations ensued. It appeared
that an M’kikuyu warrior had indulged too freely in “tembo” (native
beer), and had run amuck through our camp. Our men, in their
already fidgety state, jumped to the conclusion that they were being
attacked, seized their rifles, and were about to use them, when our
timely appearance on the scene prevented a very pretty butchery.
The natives professed to be very sorry for what had occurred, and,
seizing their drunken companion, hurried him away, and peace, if not
harmony, was restored.
We did not trust them, however, as they seemed very sullen over
the whole business. Koranja was also very nervous, and showed it,
which did not tend to reassure our men. We ate our dinner at dusk,
to the accompaniment of howling and shouting from A’kikuyu
concealed in the surrounding bush. We doubled the guard at
sundown, just before we went to dinner, giving them the most
precise instructions in the event of an alarm. At the conclusion of the
meal we were startled by a volley from the sentries. The whole camp
was immediately alarmed, and symptoms of a panic manifested
themselves. We restored order with a little difficulty, and, on
investigation, found that the sentries had fired on some natives
skulking round in undue proximity to the camp.
We now made every preparation for attack, and made
arrangements for one or the other of us to be on guard all night. I
took the first watch from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m., and El Hakim the second
from 10 p.m. to 12 a.m.; but everything remained quiet, and El
Hakim did not think it necessary to call George at midnight, the rest
of the night proving uneventful, with the exception that our fox-terrier
gave birth to six puppies, of which she seemed very proud.
At daylight we struck camp, and were away before the sun was
fairly up. The country was much the same as on the day before,
though, if anything, the jungle was more dense. The shambas were
filled to overflowing with unripe muhindi and pumpkins, while sweet
potatoes and beans were growing in great profusion on every side.
Travelling in the early morning was decidedly unpleasant, as the dew
collected on the shrubbery was shaken down upon us in showers,
wetting us through to the skin. We crossed two or three small rivers,
and at midday reached and camped at a place called Materu.
 The chief soon put in an appearance, and we purchased a further
supply of food, in the shape of potatoes, beans, muhindi, and a little
honey. We also obtained further information of the road through the
notorious M’bu country which, I must confess, did not seem to have
any better reputation the nearer we approached it.
Our Maranga friends, under Koranja, appeared very frightened at
their close proximity to the dreaded Wa’M’bu, and intimated their
intention of returning to Maranga. We answered that they might go
when we gave them permission, but for the present we required their
services; with which answer they had perforce to be content.
The next morning we again travelled through much the same
densely populated and cultivated country as that hitherto passed,
though it seemed to get more mountainous. We had not as yet got a
view of Mount Kenia, as the sky had been for days covered with a
thick curtain of grey clouds. Koranja informed us that two hours after
starting we should reach a river called “Shelangow,” which was the
boundary of M’bu. We said the sooner the better.
At midday, after some hours’ steady march, we appeared to be as
far from the “Shelangow” as ever, though we had been informed that
it was “huko mbeli kidogo” (only just in front) for over three hours. As
the men were very tired, El Hakim decided to camp, in spite of
Koranja’s energetic protests that the Shelangow was “karibu
kabissa” (very near). The country was very wet with the constant
drizzle and mist, which made the steep clayey paths exceedingly
slippery, while between the shambas the way led through thickets of
brambles and stinging nettles, which caused the porters endless
discomfort. On halting, we built a boma of shrubs; not that we
thought it would be of any use in case of an attack, but to give the
men confidence. We wrote letters and gave them to Koranja, on the
remote chance that they would get down to Nairobi, and thence to
England. (They did get down four months later, and were delivered in
England five months after they were written.)
In the evening Koranja and his friends then bade us an
affectionate and relieved farewell. They remarked in parenthesis that
they would never see us again, as the Wa’M’bu would certainly kill
us all; a belief that probably explained why they helped themselves
to all our small private stock of sweet potatoes before they left; a
moral lapse that—luckily for them—we did not discover till next
morning. Our men sent a deputation to us during the evening,
pointing out the perils of the passage through M’bu, and saying that
we should of a certainty be killed, and most likely eaten. This
statement we received with polite incredulity, and dismissed the
deputation with a warning not to do it again.
Next morning I was very queer, a large lump having formed in my
groin. This is a very common complaint in East Africa and Uganda,
supposedly due to over-fatigue and walking, though I think climate
and diet have something to do with it. George had two very bad ones
on his way down from Uganda. It was my second experience of
them, and the oftener I suffered from them, the less I liked them, as
they are exceedingly painful. The only cure seems to be complete
rest, and hot fomentations applied to the swelling.
We did not travel that day in consequence, but occupied ourselves
in buying a little food and getting what further information we could
about the road ahead. There were not many natives or villages about
—a fact easily explained by the contiguity of the M’bu border. The
place where we were camped was a sort of neutral territory, or “no
man’s land.”
Next day, soon after daylight, we set out for the Shelangow, which
was reached after a couple of hours’ march over very steep country.
It proved to be merely a mountain torrent, which we easily crossed.
On the other side rose a very steep hill, to the top of which we
climbed, and found ourselves at last in the country of the dreaded
Wa’M’bu.
 CHAPTER IV.
FROM M’BU, ACROSS EAST KENIA, TO ZURA.

First sight of Kenia—Hostile demonstrations by the M’bu people—We

impress two guides—Passage through M’bu—Demonstrations in
force by the inhabitants—Farewell to M’bu—The guides desert—
Arrival in Zuka—Friendly reception by the Wa’zuka—Passage
through Zuka—Muimbe—Igani—Moravi—Arrival at Zura—
Welcome by Dirito, the chief of Zura.
In order that there should be no misunderstanding on the part of the
Wa’M’bu as to our calibre, El Hakim determined to pursue an
aggressive policy, without, however, committing any overt act. We
accordingly pitched our camp in the middle of one of their shambas,
and helped ourselves freely to anything we fancied in the way of
muhindi, etc. Their natural line of reasoning would be that a safari
which had the effrontery to act in that way must be very powerful,
and should therefore be approached with caution.
The result entirely justified our action; which was only what we
expected, as with bullying natives, might is always right.
No natives came into our camp—a bad sign, though we saw many
skulking round in the bush. They seemed very morose and sulky, but
so far showed no signs of active hostility. We put on a double guard
for the night, and went to sleep in our clothes; but we were not
disturbed.
We did not travel the following morning, as we were without
guides; and as no natives came into camp we resolved to capture
one on the first available opportunity. At sunrise we got our first
glimpse of Mount Kenia, and a wonderful view it was. Kenia is called
“Kilimaro” by the Swahilis, and “Donyo Ebor” (Black Mountain) and
“Donyo Egere” (Spotted Mountain) by the Masai; so called because
of the large black patches on the main peak, where the sides are too
precipitous for the snow to lodge.
 Thompson[2] describes his first impressions of Kenia thus:—
“As pious Moslems watch with strained eyes the appearance of
the new moon or the setting of the sun, to begin their orisons, so we
now waited for the uplifting of the fleecy veil, to render due homage
to the heaven-piercing Kenia. The sun set in the western heavens,
and sorrowfully we were about to turn away, when suddenly there
was a break in the clouds far up in the sky, and the next moment a
dazzling white pinnacle caught the last rays of the sun, and shone
with a beauty, marvellous, spirit-like, and divine; cut off, as it
apparently was, by immeasurable distance from all connection with
the gross earth. The sun’s rays went off, and then, with a softness
like the atmosphere of dreams, which befitted the gloaming, that
white peak remained as though some fair spirit with subdued and
chastened expression lingered at her evening devotions. Presently,
as the garish light of day melted into the soft hues and mild
effulgence of a moon-lit night, the ‘heaven-kissing’ mountain became
gradually disrobed; and then in its severe outlines and chaste beauty
it stood forth from top to bottom, entrancing, awe-inspiring—meet
reward for days of maddening worry and nights of sleepless anxiety.
At that moment I could almost feel that Kenia was to me what the
sacred stone of Mecca is to the Faithful, who have wandered from
distant lands, surmounting perils and hardships, that they might but
kiss or see the hallowed object, and then, if it were God’s will, die.”
While I am unable to rise to the dizzy heights of rhetorical
description, or revel in the boundless fields of metaphor so
successfully exploited by Mr. Thompson, I fully endorse his remarks.
The first sight of Kenia does produce a remarkable impression on
the traveller; an impression which does not—one is surprised to find
—wear off with time. Kenia, like a clever woman, is chary of
exhibiting her manifold charms too often to the vulgar gaze. One can
live at the base of the mountain for weeks, or even months, and
never get a glimpse of its magnificent peak.
We, however, could not stop to romance, as the enemy were even
now clamouring without our gates; and we were reluctantly
compelled to turn our wandering attention to a more serious
business. It appeared quite within the bounds of possibility that we
should “die” without even “kissing” the “hallowed object” so ably
eulogized by Mr. Thompson; as the irreverent Wa’M’bu were making
hostile demonstrations in the thick bush surrounding our camp,
regardless of our æsthetic yearnings. They were apparently trying
our temper by means of a demonstration in force, and such awful
howlings as they made I never previously heard.
Our men became very nervous, and fidgeted constantly with their
guns, looking with strained gaze into the bush without the camp. El
Hakim was, as usual, quite undisturbed, and George and I
succeeded in keeping up an appearance of impassive calm, and
condescended even to make jokes about the noise, an attitude
which went a long way towards reassuring our men, who watched us
constantly. Any sign of nervousness or anxiety on our part would
have been fatal, as the men would have instantly scattered and run
for the border, with a result easily foreseen.
The morning passed in this manner, the Wa’M’bu continuing their
howling, while we went through our ordinary camp routine with as
much nonchalance as we could command.
We had lately lived largely upon vegetables, and now determined
to give ourselves a treat, so we cooked our only ham, and made an
excellent lunch on ham and boiled muhindi cobs. During the meal
the war-cries of the Wa’M’bu increased in volume, and our men were
plainly very much disturbed. They kept looking in our direction as if
for orders; while we appeared as if utterly unaware that anything
untoward was happening.
Presently Jumbi came up with his rifle at the shoulder, and
saluting, stood a yard or so away from the table. El Hakim was busily
eating, and studiously ignored him for a moment or two. Presently he
looked up.
“Yes?” he said inquiringly.
Jumbi saluted again. “The ‘Washenzi,’ Bwana!” said he.
“Well?” interrogated El Hakim again.
“They are coming to attack us, Bwana, on this side and on that
side,” said Jumbi, indicating with a sweep of his arm the front and
rear of the camp.
“All right,” said El Hakim, “I will see about it after lunch; I am eating
now. You can go.”
And Jumbi, saluting once more, went off to where the men were
nervously waiting. His account of the interview, we could see,
reassured them greatly. They concluded the “Wasungu” must have
something good up their sleeve to be able to take matters so calmly.
At the conclusion of the meal we instructed our men to shout to
the enemy and ask them as insolently as possible if they wanted to
fight. There was a sudden silence on the part of the Wa’M’bu when
they realized the purport of the words; but in a little time a single
voice answered, “Kutire kimandaga” (We do not want to fight). We
then invited their chief to come into camp, an invitation he seemed
very slow to accept, but after long hesitation he mustered up
sufficient courage, and walked slowly into camp, accompanied by
one other old man.
He was a fine-looking, grey-haired old chap, and carried himself
with great dignity. Negotiations were opened with a few strings of
beads, which after a moment’s indecision he accepted. We then
talked to him gently, but firmly, and asked the reason of the
unseemly noise outside.
“Do you want to fight?” we asked aggressively.
He replied that the old men did not want to fight, but the young
men did.
“Very well,” we said, still more aggressively, “go away and tell the
young men to come on and fight us at once, and let us get it over.”
He then added that the young men did not want to fight either.
This was our opportunity, and, seizing it, we talked very severely
to him, intimating that we were much annoyed at the noise that had
been made. We did not consider it at all friendly, we said, and if there
were any more of it, we should not wait for the young men to come
to us, we should go to them and put a stop to their howling.